lili^ 


BV  4211  .G8  1911 
Gunsaulus,  Frank  Wakeley, 

1856-1921. 
The  minister  and  tne 

spiritual  life 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE 
SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


Frank  W.  Gunsaulus,  D.  D. 

THE    MINISTER    AND    THE 
SPIRITUAL  LIFE 
Yale  Lectures  on   Preaching  for  1911 
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Tale  Lectures  on  Preaching 

The   Minister 

and 

The  Spiritual  Life 


!/      By 
FRANK  W.  GUNSAULUS,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 

Minister  of  Central  Churcht  Chicago 


New  York         Chicago         Toronto 
Fleming  H.   Revell   Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  191*,  by 
FLEMING   H.    REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      loo    Princes    Street 


{From  the  Records  of  the  Corporation  of 
Tale  College^  Jpril  12,  iSyi.) 

"  Voted,  To  accept  the  offer  of  Mr.  Henry 
N.  Sage,  of  Brooklyn,  of  the  sum  often  thousand 
dollars,  for  the  founding  of  a  lectureship  in  the 
Theological  Department,  in  a  branch  of  Pastoral 
Theology,  to  be  designated  •  The  Lyman  Beecher 
Lectureship  on  Preaching,'  to  be  filled  from  time 
to  time,  upon  the  appointment  of  the  Corporation, 
by  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  of  any  evangelical 
denomination,  who  has  been  markedly  successful 
in  the  special  work  of  the  Christian  ministry." 


Note 

It  will  be  understood  that  none  of  these 
lectures  was  delivered  in  its  entirety  on  the 
occasion  for  which  it  was  prepared.  All  of 
the  statements  here,  however,  were  made  in 
answering  the  questions  of  students  and  in 
addresses  made  in  the  course  of  the  author's 
visit  to  Yale  Divinity  School,  in  the  spring 
of  1911. 

Certain  statements  already  used  in  his 
volumes  "Paths  to  Power"  and  "Paths  to 
the  City  of  God  "  have  been  repeated. 

F.  W.  G. 


Contents 

I.  The  Spiritual  Life  and  Its  Ex- 

pression IN  AND  Through  Min- 
istry          II 

II.  The    Spiritual    Life   and   New 

View-Points     ....       47 

III.  The  Spiritual  Life  and  Its  Rela- 

tion  TO   Truth   and  Ortho- 
doxy .....       89 

IV.  The  Spiritual  Life  and  the  Pres- 

ent Social  Problem  .         .     135 

V.  The  Spiritual  Life  and  Its  De- 

terminations     and     Deliver- 
ances         177 

VI.  The     Spiritual    Life    and    the 

Minister's  Message  .         .     225 

VII.  The  Spiritual  Life  and  Its  Com- 

munication TO  Men  .         .     279 

VIII.  The  Spiritual  Life  and  the  Min- 

ister's Power  ....    333 


LECTURE  I 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 
AND  ITS  EXPRESSION  IN 
AND  THROUGH  MINISTRY 


LECTURE  I 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND  ITS  EX- 

PRESSION  IN  AND  THROUGH 

MINISTRY 

I  AM  not  come  to  recommend  spirituality 
to  you,  my  young  brethren.  When  a 
thing  so  imperative  and  self-sufficing  as 
spirituality  permits  recommendation  and  rec- 
ommendation only,  it  is  doubtful  if  it  may  get 
a  hearing  at  all,  or  ought  to  expect  it.  When 
honesty  must  be  urged  upon  the  community 
because  it  is  the  best  policy,  a  hard  time  for 
honesty  has  come ;  and  it  will  be  more  diffi- 
cult to  keep  people  honest  in  any  essential 
way,  partly  because  of  the  increasing  evi- 
dence that  at  last  becomes  overwhelming — 
that  it  is  the  best  policy.  It  is  at  least  not 
policy  at  all  to  allow  ennobling  reasons  or  just 
motives  for  honesty  to  shrivel  and  to  become 
atrophied,  while  we  entertain  the  less  noble, 
or  ignoble  reasons  in  the  intellect,  or  motives 
for  the  will,  in  the  direction  of  what  is  of 
13 


14  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

itself  sufficing  and,  like  beauty,  its  own  ex- 
cuse for  being. 

No!  I  shall  not  recommend  spirituality, 
but  I  will  begin  with  the  understanding  be- 
tween us  that,  without  it,  the  breath  of  life  is 
not  in  the  nostrils  of  the  minister  of  Christ 
God  is  His  own  satisfaction,  and  the  spiritual 
life  alone  has  in  it  the  hope  and  process  of 
man's  Becoming  and  Being.  It  is,  therefore, 
the  experience  of  Godlikeness.  As  Being  is 
deeper  than  Doing,  it  is  to  the  perennial 
fountain  of  all  worthy  doing  that  I  come  at 
once.  Just  to  be  and  maintain  one's  self  as 
a  man  made  in  God's  image  means  spiritu- 
ality of  living.  The  highest  revelation  of 
man  is  in  Christ  Jesus  and  through  Christ 
Jesus.  His  presence  in  the  world,  both  be- 
fore and  after  His  advent,  furnishes  a  new 
and  unique  spiritualization  of  human  facts 
and  forces — a  filling  them  full,  even  to  the 
uttermost,  until  the  Christian  ministry  comes 
to  be  both  the  expression  and  finer  form  of 
its  operation. 

The  mystery  of  our  existence  is  solved 
only  in  the  mystery  of  being  and  becoming 


ITS   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   MINISTRY     1 5 

something  of  worth.  The  smaller  deepens 
into  the  larger  mystery.  The  mystery  of 
being  can  be  contemplated  and  endured  only 
in  the  mystery  of  life — life  as  a  means  to  an 
end,  life  as  furnishing  the  opportunity  and 
processes  by  which  worth  is  attained.  If  in 
any  religious  program  for  man  this  appears 
a  bit  foggy  and  cloudy,  let  us  know  that  we 
are  in  the  vicinity  of  the  great  sea,  and  at  a 
certain  temperature.  It  is  strange  and  ex- 
hilarating to  experience  the  clearing-up  of 
fog  and  cloud,  in  the  ever-deepening  mystery 
of  being  through  living. 

Superb  and  joyous  vitality  lifts  the  sky  to 
unwonted  heights  where  the  soul  is  at  home 
and  more  self-respectful  and  more  unafraid, 
than  beneath  an  apparently  lower  sky  clouded 
o'er.  Vitality  is  everything  in  its  strength- 
ening the  organism  against  mere  environ- 
ment— a  thing  of  which  the  preacher  gets 
unhealthfully  conscious  oftentimes,  especially 

"When  the  light  is  low, 
When  the  blood  creeps,  and  the  nerves  prick 
And  tingle ;  and  the  heart  is  sick, 
And  all  the  wheels  of  Being  slow." 


l6  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

In  any  account  of  the  spiritual  life,  we  must 
agree  that  life  has  a  greater  secret  and  a 
wider  play  of  intelligence,  emotion,  and  pur- 
pose than  are  implied  in  the  statement  that 
it  is  "  harmonization  with  one's  environment." 
To  set  one's  self  against  one's  environment 
often  is  to  save  one's  self  and  beneficently  to 
transform  the  environment.  Heredity  and 
environment  are  not  such  tyrannous  words 
as  they  once  were,  partly  because  we  who  are 
to  minister,  even  if  we  know  nothing  of  the 
results  of  modern  scientific  and  philosophical 
thinking,  begin  in  the  conviction  first  appear- 
ing in  our  own  minds  that  the  central  per- 
sonality of  the  human  being  we  minister  unto 
is  not  in  the  hands  of  his  ancestors  or  in 
the  fatality  of  circumstances.  The  wider  in- 
duction, with  our  sense  of  obligation  and 
ill-desert,  has  made  havoc  of  the  assumed 
omnipotence  lately  and  conveniently  called 
heredity  and  environment.  The  preacher 
must  be  vital  himself  to  communicate  any 
cogent  statement  of  this  truth  to  others.  He 
must  have  felt  the  spring  to  sing  its  vernal 
songs ;   and   to  affect  the  expansive  life  of 


ITS  EXPRESSION  THROUGH  MINISTRY     1 7 

man  influenced  by  him,  he  must  have  ex- 
perienced a  definite  spiritualization  of  his 
faculties.  This  secures  and  gives  character 
to  his  inlook  and  outlook.  Ours  is  the  re- 
ligion arising  from  God's  manifestation  of 
Himself  in  humanity.  Its  ministry,  there- 
fore, is  both  divine  and  human.  The  history 
of  Christianity  is  the  history  of  a  ministry 
which  is  the  personal  outgoing  through  serv- 
ice, by  lips  and  hand,  of  an  inner  experience 
consequent  upon  a  spiritualizing  inflow  of 
the  divine  upon  the  human  in  us. 

To  recommend  spirituality,  therefore,  even 
to  champion  its  claim  as  an  indispensable 
fact  and  factor  in  ministering,  is  to  put  out  of 
sight  the  divine  order,  and  to  lose  the  vision 
of  the  cause  in  our  anxiety  as  to  the  effect 
and  its  good  fortune.  "  There  is  a  spirit  in 
man,  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty 
giveth  them  understanding,"  "Without  vi- 
sion the  people  perish,"  "  Be  ye  spiritual," 
"  The  spirit  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit 
that  we  are  born  of  God," — these  are  but  a 
few  of  the  words  immortal  which  help  to  con- 
stitute a  delineation  of  what  man  is  essen- 


l8  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

tially,  and,  especially,  what  he  is  in  the  attain- 
ing of  himself  through  his  life  in  God,  the 
Father  of  all  Spirits.  Perhaps  one  of  the  very 
weaknesses  most  to  be  lamented,  as  we  falter 
and  fail  in  handling  the  Christian  realities  that 
are  ever  to  be  spoken  of  in  the  pulpit  or  car- 
ried to  men  through  our  shepherding  of 
souls,  comes  from  our  inadequate  perception 
of  the  primacy  of  spiritual  realities  and  their 
inherent  right  to  be  supreme. 

If  the  poet  must  insist  that  beauty  is  its 
own  excuse  for  being,  and  a  philosopher  of 
aesthetics  proves  that  if  one  does  not  respond 
to  the  beautiful  for  the  sake  of  the  beautiful 
itself,  he  has — to  use  a  New  Testament  word, 
— "  been  condemned  already."  He  is  lost  to 
beauty  as  beauty,  whatever  estimates  he  may 
have  of  its  subsidiary  values.  How  much  more, 
then,  do  we  need  at  once  to  perceive  and  stand 
in  our  proper  attitude  towards  spirituality  of 
life.  The  right  attitude  for  us  is  not  one  in 
which  we  are  "condemned  already"  by  the  fact 
that  we  have  no  passion  for  spirituality  in  itself. 
It  is  one  in  which  we  are  placed  because  we 
are  already  saved  by  the  power  of  an  endless 


ITS  EXPRESSION  THROUGH  MINISTRY     1 9 

life — life  whose  endlessness  comes  of  the  per- 
ennial quality  of  spirituality.  We  are  saved 
in  the  fact  that  spirituality  guarantees  a  per- 
sonal perpetuity  consequent  upon  living  in 
and  through  things  eternal. 

Let  us  begin,  then,  with  the  only  event  of 
our  biography  which  has  rightly  brought  us 
here.  Let  us  get  things  in  proper  order,  for 
we  have  entered  the  ministry,  not  to  obtain 
spirituality  or  to  take  it  on  the  recommenda- 
tion of  any  one,  because  spirituality  of  life 
may  have,  and  does  have  valuable  conse- 
quences assuring  us  of  effectiveness  in  our 
work.  No  ;  we  have  entered  the  ministry  in 
response  to  a  causative  influence  within  us,  a 
realization  of  our  spiritual  essence,  its  pre- 
rogatives and  privileges,  its  hopes  and  sover- 
eignties of  influence.  We  are  here  because 
the  inner  vitalities  of  faith  and  experience 
must  blossom  forth.  Expression  is  the  next 
thing  for  their  life.  They  have  involved  plans 
for  our  further  self-attainment  and  for  the 
self-attainment  of  all  humanity.  All  of  these 
have  been  discovered  in  our  relationship  to 
Jesus  Christ.     All  of  these  are  to  be  wrought 


20  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

out  with  increasing  joy  and  blessing,  as  we 
manifest  them,  and,  especially,  their  source  in 
Jesus  Christ,  to  others  whom  now  we  love 
with  something  of  Christ's  reasons  and  ardours 
for  loving  other  men,  because  of  alike  potency 
of  spirituality  in  them.  No  true  ministry  is 
possible  for  you  and  me  on  any  other  basis. 

These  lectures  will  be  less  than  what  I  wish 
they  may  be,  if  they  are  not  received  as  sub- 
stantially the  particular  considerations  which 
I  have  been  invited  to  bring  to  you,  my 
younger  brethren,  out  of  an  age  and  atmos- 
phere which  my  own  ministry  finds  enforcing 
their  own  special  commandment  and  method 
with  increasing  emphasis.  I  have  lived  with, 
and  I  hope  I  have  helped  to  educate  men  who 
understand  power  and  its  uses  in  the  process 
of  man's  attaining  his  own  potencies  and 
worths.  An  Institute  of  Technology  is  not  en- 
tirely untheological.  These  hundreds  of  en- 
gineers have  left  me  with  certain  ideas  as  to 
the  efificiencies  demanded  of  material  and  en- 
ergy by  the  modern  world.  I  am  glad  to  say 
some  of  their  equations  have  transformed  or 
greatly  increased  the  purposefulness  and  force 


ITS  EXPRESSION  THROUGH   MINISTRY     21 

of  my  own  methods  as  a  minister.  This  has 
occurred  to  me  the  while  I  have  discovered 
analogies  which  have  amounted  to  startHng 
correspondences,  in  the  methods  of  Jesus  our 
Master  and  of  those  who  have  reached  and 
are  attaining  in  some  approximate  degree 
His  attitude  and  way  of  ministry. 

At  this  particular  juncture  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Christian  enterprise,  the  minister's 
spirituality  is,  for  various  and  often  apparendy 
opposing  reasons,  the  most  interesting  item 
of  all  the  facts  and  forces  of  human  progress. 
Now,  whether  our  churchly  authorities  are  of 
the  opinion  that  the  spirituality  of  the  Chris- 
tian minister,  in  America  especially,  is  the 
most  interesting  item  among  the  facts  and 
forces  of  human  progress,  as  I  have  declared, 
I  cannot  say,  but  let  me  give  you  my  convic- 
tion that,  happily  as  I  think  for  us,  what  we 
call  "  The  World,"  which  is  to  be  recreated 
by  the  kingdom  of  the  spirit,  does  certainly 
think  so.  The  apparently  opposing  camps 
—the  Church  and  the  world,  as  we  have  so 
often  too  roughly  named  them — do  not  vie 
with  one  another,  proposing  questions  as  to 


22  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

how  we  shall  possibly  get  along  in  the  devel- 
opment of  our  civilization  without  the  minis- 
ter's spirituality  of  life,  as  they  once  did. 
The  world  is  in  the  Church  too  fully  and  freely 
to  permit  her  to  be  ignorant  of  the  world's 
way  of  thinking  and  worth,  even  if  the  Church 
knows  of  the  world's  collateral  thoughtless- 
ness and  worthlessness.  Christianity  is  no 
longer  chiefly  possessed,  inhibited,  and  man- 
aged by  the  Church.  It  is  out  in  the  world 
and  will  never  again  be  so  exclusively  an  ec- 
clesiastical asset  and  possession  as  it  has 
been  in  the  past.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  Church 
may  longer  consider  herself  seriously  as  pos- 
sessing and  exercising  even  a  dominant  con- 
trol over  the  ideas,  inspirations,  or  the  conse- 
quences of  the  Christian  religion.  Humanity 
has  seen  the  veil  of  the  temple  "  rent  in  twain 
from  the  top  to  the  bottom,"  as  once  before, 
and,  now  as  then,  this  veil  has  been  rent  be- 
cause the  world  has  a  resistless  exemplifica- 
tion of  the  sovereignty  of  self-sacrifice  in  the 
passion  of  Christ  on  Calvary.  It  has  heard 
that  "the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men." 
Thoughtful  people  believe  it.     It  has  had  a 


ITS   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   MINISTRY     23 

vision  of  a  city  celestial  with  "  no  temple 
there."  The  world's  interest  in  the  ministry 
and  what  the  ministry  shall  do,  because  of 
what  the  ministry  is,  in  the  citadel  of  its  spir- 
ituality, is  far  more  evident  and  aggressive 
than  its  interest  in  poetry,  and  even  inven- 
tion, and  possibly  in  philanthropy  as  such. 
No  other  interest  has  so  gripped  the  human 
soul.  Man  having  been  put  into  his  place, 
in  thinking,  as  "  incurably  religious  "  and  set 
deliberately  upon  the  "  living  of  his  life  fully," 
that  is  set  upon  human  self-realization,  no  one 
expects  him  to  be  satisfied  with  anything  this 
side  of  a  religion  of  humanity. 

August  Comte,  an  age  since,  with  superb 
ritual  and  in  spite  of  tiresome  mechanisms, 
challenged  the  attention  of  the  world  in 
inaugurating  a  church  of  humanity.  The 
thoughtful  world  sees  that  while  he  thought 
it  was  a  religion  of  humanity  established,  it 
was  in  fact  only  a  church,  and  then  only  so 
much  of  a  church  of  humanity  as  one  could 
fabricate  without  a  religion.  Man  could  not, 
and  cannot,  become  his  own  God.  However, 
the  failure  has  rather  stimulated  than  discour- 


24  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

aged  the  effort  of  that  Christianity  which 
works  outside  of  a  church,  as  well  as  inside  of 
the  Church,  or  works  outside  of  the  Church 
chiefly,  or  even  entirely — to  hope  and  toil  on 
expectantly  in  the  same  general  direction. 
A  religion  of  humanity  we  will  have.  Never 
did  the  heart  of  this  old  world  so  truly  har- 
monize with  the  head,  as  now,  in  the  convic- 
tion that  we  shall  not,  because  we  cannot,  dis- 
pense with  true  priests.  Our  religion  of  hu- 
manity must  bind  us  to  the  divine,  even  if  we 
must  exalt  the  human  to  that  moral  eminence. 
The  minister  will  always  be  the  minstrel  of 
the  soul,  not  because  the  words  have  a  com- 
mon root,  but  because  certain  realities  are 
fundamentally  one.  The  Church,  by  a  super- 
stition as  to  orders,  and  by  the  separation  of 
a  few  men  from  their  other  fellow  beings  after 
some  mechanical  fashion  duly  associated  with 
religious  terminology,  now  and  again  may 
empty  the  ministry  of  its  sublime  meanings, 
as  it  certainly  has,  but  even  then  the  world 
will  ever  find  pathways  to  the  door  of  the 
man,  who,  better  than  any  other,  tells  the  soul 
of  things  spiritual.     This  is  true,  especially  at 


ITS   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   MINISTRY     25 

moments  such  as  these  in  which  we  live. 
For  our  world  has  lived  to  the  bottom  of 
many  interesting  phenomena  and  now  seeks 
the  realities  behind  them.  It  is  saying  that 
all  things  are  first  and  last  thinkings  ;  phys- 
ical facts  are  seen  to  verge  away  spiritually 
and  towards  greater  meanings  and  higher 
potencies  ;  material  interests  end  as  interests  ; 
but  the  concerns  of  the  soul  widen  and  deepen 
and  heighten  immeasurably  in  interest. 
Leaving  aside  physics  and  metaphysics,  the 
world  is  aware  that  our  most  alert  and  joyous 
faculties  are  done  with  the  pleasures  that  are 
not  continuously  joyous,  and  with  the  smart- 
nesses that  grow  feebler  with  the  weight  of 
life  upon  them.  The  equation  of  material- 
ism, either  speculative  or  practical,  is  no 
longer  seriously  used. 

Is  the  Christian  ministry  on  its  merits? 
There  is  at  least  a  good  prospect.  As  long 
as  the  Church  persists  in  enshrining  the  holiest 
tradition  or  associating  any  body  of  men, 
whose  endowments  and  experiences  do  not 
reveal  depths  and  heights  of  spiritual  being, 
with  the  task  of  maintaining  revered  formula 


26  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

and  overawing  ceremonial,  or  even  with  the 
police-duty  of  guarding  the  fearsome  allega- 
tions of  a  once  dominant  theology,  it  may  be 
difficult  to  find  ground  for  hope.  There  will 
always  be  a  certain  proprietary  interest  in  the 
long  and  rich  investment  from  other  ages 
which  the  conservative  instinct  must  look  out 
after.  The  instinct  of  maintaining  the  value 
of  property  as  against  some  contemporary 
incursions  of  human  progress  works  auto- 
matically or  makes  a  product,  the  wheels  of 
the  old  mill  still  turning  after  the  power  is  ex- 
hausted. The  most  that  can  be  accomplished 
by  such  as  labour  or  hope  in  this  condition  is 
that  they  may  save  the  form  even  if  they  lose 
the  spirit.  And  while  the  Church  hesitates 
and  insists  loudly  that  all  she  ever  had  is  in 
safe  keeping,  the  world  will  turn  sadly  away 
from  this  over-emphasis,  and  especially  will 
it  question  any  authority  over  conscience  after 
it  has  found  its  lack  of  authority  over  com- 
mon sense.  It  is  a  sad  hour  for  ecclesiastical 
authority  of  any  sort  when  the  developed 
common  sense  of  the  world  repudiates  it. 
But  something  more  happens.     The  world  is 


ITS   EXPRESSION  THROUGH   MINISTRY     27 

not  dull.  It  fails  not  to  behold  certain  things 
made  startlingly  evident  by  contrast  with 
things  in  every  other  realm  of  life  than  that 
of  church  life.  Its  tremendous  business  in- 
stinct and  energy  compel  human  interest  to 
move  towards  the  essential.  The  only  essen- 
tial and  distinctive  thing  in  the  minister's  life 
and  conduct  is  spirituality.  His  apparent 
success  in  being  this  or  that,  and  his  facility 
in  doing  this  or  that  ever  so  brilliantly,  does 
not  dazzle  the  world  ;  it  has  long  ago  shut  its 
eye  and  feels  about  searchingly,  and  almost 
pathetically,  for  the  reality  which  the  ministry 
in  the  last  issue  of  the  world's  confidence 
must  be  held  to  possess — the  secret  and  spring 
of  the  life  of  the  world  and  himself — spirit- 
uality. The  Christian  Church  exists  that  hu- 
manity may  attain  self-realization  in  and 
through  the  self-manifestation  of  God  in 
Christ.  Having  agreed  as  to  the  essential 
thing  in  the  life  of  the  Church,  the  spirituality 
of  its  ministry  is  not  only  the  elixir  of  its  life  ; 
it  is  the  life  itself.  The  world  steps  in  to  say 
that  it  will  not  permit  this  vital  force  to  hold 
any  secondary  place,  and  that  a  social  force 


28  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

SO  immeasurably  endowed  with  ideas  and 
ideals,  so  completely  and  perennially  en- 
gaging the  ethical  imagination  of  mankind, 
as  the  Christian  ministry,  must  no  longer  lack 
the  necessary  imperative. 

It  does  not  require  extraordinary  piety  to 
perceive  this.  One  has  only  to  be  able  to 
handle  a  social  and  ethical  equation  whose 
members  represent  ascertained  forces ;  and 
the  intellect  of  the  modern  world  can  do  that. 
The  Christian  ministry  must  be  more,  in  the 
direction  which  differentiates  and  must  dis- 
tinguish it  from  all  other  life  pursuits,  or  it 
must  be  nothing.  The  world  has  had  to  do 
with  efficients  and  co-efficients.  It  is  using 
all  its  exhaust  steam  and  is  now  finding  that 
the  dump  of  many  an  abandoned  mine  is, 
with  its  new  and  better  economic  processes, 
more  valuable  than  the  original  mother-vein 
was  without  them.  Because  of  the  economy 
and  efficiency  of  its  methods  of  ore  treat- 
ment, it  is  seeking  for  abandoned  mines.  It 
is  no  longer  likely  to  revere,  except  as  remi- 
niscences and  relics  of  a  past  more  or  less  fas- 
cinating, the  ecclesiastical  machinery  and  edi- 


ITS   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   MINISTRY     29 

fice.  It  will  not  bear  any  repetitious  asser- 
tion of  authority.  It  knows  that  in  the  na- 
ture and  history  it  studies,  the  authority  of 
power  will  take  care  of  itself.  It  needs  no 
committee  of  safety  in  progress.  These  things 
only  serve  to  hide  permanently  valuable  fac- 
tors of  human  life.  Certain  conservative 
methods  must  abide,  but  these  factors  are 
made  glorious  without  and  within  by  minis- 
terial spirituality  quivering  in  the  fire  of  cen- 
tral altars  which  fling  their  radiance  out 
through  a  window  otherwise  dull  and  dust- 
covered,  surcharging  it  instead  with  this 
flame's  Hght  which,  pouring  through  it,  makes 
it  a  revelation,  without  from  within.  The  au- 
thority of  that  revelation  is  attested  in  the 
response  of  the  eye  to  the  vision.  Every 
mental  habit  of  the  modern  world  goes  driv- 
ing towards  the  characteristic  energy  which  it 
has  the  right  to  expect  with  the  certain  claims 
and  material  which  are  in  evidence  whenever 
the  minister  of  Christ  to  me  appears. 

If  these  facts  have  already  arrested  your 
attention,  I  ask  you  to  consider  them  with 
me,  in  view  of  indubitable  wealth  of  oppor- 


30  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

tunity  for  us  who  are  servants  of  God  and 
man,  as  we  approach  with  our  gospel  the 
world's  heart  and  life.  By  my  use  of  the 
term  *•  the  world,"  I  do  not  mean  the  world 
as  a  thing  adequately  described  as  a  carnal, 
adulterous — because  fallen — section  of  crea- 
tion, but  I  refer  to  the  thing  Jesus  came  to 
save,  which  is  called  "the  world"  in  the 
words,  "And  God  so  loved  the  world  that 
He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son."  Now  this 
"  world  "  was  in  existence  before  formal  Chris- 
tianity came,  and  is  therefore  not  the  thing 
which  our  pious  thought  has  somewhat  loftily 
and  patronizingly  separated  from  the  Church, 
seeing  to  it  that  it  shall  appear  contrastingly 
dark  with  the  expectation  that  the  Church 
may  appear  contrastingly  bright.  **  The 
world"  does  not  mean  a  lot  of  this  worldly 
people  who  are  set  against  other-worldliness^ 
especially  the  "world  to  come,"  as  Chris- 
tians view  it.  There  is  a  world  of  true  and 
eager  thinking,  of  generous  and  broad  phi- 
lanthropy, of  sinning  and  yet  salvable  hu- 
manity, of  hoping  and  aspiring  souls  who 
have  all  the  troubles  and  vexations,  the  losses 


ITS  EXPRESSION  THROUGH  MINISTRY     3 1 

and  crosses,  which  men  distinctly  identified 
with  the  Church  also  have.  Certain  it  is 
that  this  world  has  made  a  mistake  in  not 
realizing  that  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
meant  to  be  a  means  to  an  end,  and  that  this 
end  is  righteousness,  the  rightening  up  of 
the  world  by  the  making  of  men  righteous. 
But  now  it  is  this  world  which  has  a  similar 
confidence  with  Christianity  and  a  spiritual- 
ized Church.  It  is  based  on  the  fact  that  the 
world  is  not  for  the  Church,  but  the  Church 
is  for  the  world ;  that  nothing  but  the  highest 
thing  which  all  humanity  may  reach  is  a  goal 
worthy  of  the  struggle  of  either  the  Church 
or  the  world,  whether  it  accepts  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Church  in  the  world,  and  for  the 
sake  of  the  world,  or  not.  It  is  fair  to  say 
that  whether  the  world  is  right  or  not,  the 
world  has  thought  for  many  days  that  the 
Church  is  not  authoritative;  she  has  not 
been  the  spiritual  leader  she  ought  to  have 
been,  and  she  is  not  all  in  this  direction  that 
she  ought  to  be.  Slowly  but  surely  the  world 
is,  at  this  moment,  announcing  this  truth  in 
its  literature  and  at  hours  in  which  brave 


32  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

and  true  human  beings  gather  to  make  the 
world  better.  The  world  believes  that  the 
chief  reason  of  the  Church's  inability  lies  in 
her  lack  of  spiritual  vision,  and,  indeed,  of 
spiritual  life,  in  those  who  are  her  constituted 
and  avowed  leaders.  It  is  a  critical  situa- 
tion. It  has  its  holy  indignations,  if  not 
the  animosities  arising  from  sickening  dis- 
appointments no  less  acute  because  the  word 
of  our  world  is  reality.  The  world  is  never 
so  demonic  with  us  as  when  we  try  to  do 
what  no  grace  has  fitted  us  to  do,  especially 
with  the  world's  demons.  It  was  so  at  the 
first  when  these  awful  powers  inherent  in  the 
Christian  program  were  placed  in  human 
hands.  Let  us  read  the  earlier  story  and  see 
how  modern  it  all  is : 

"  Then  certain  of  the  vagabond  Jews,  ex- 
orcists, took  upon  them  to  call  over  them 
which  had  evil  spirits  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  saying,  We  adjure  you  by  Jesus  whom 
Paul  preacheth.  And  there  were  seven  sons 
of  one  Sceva,  a  Jew,  and  chief  of  the  priests, 
which  did  so.  And  the  evil  spirit  answered 
and  said,  Jesus  I  know,  and  Paul  I  know; 


ITS   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   MINISTRY     33 

but  who  are  ye  ?  And  the  man  in  whom  the 
evil  spirit  was  leaped  on  them,  and  overcame 
them,  and  prevailed  against  them,  so  that 
they  fled  out  of  that  house  naked  and 
wounded.  And  this  was  known  to  all  the 
Jews  and  Greeks  also  dwelling  at  Ephesus ; 
and  fear  fell  on  them  all,  and  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  was  magnified." 

I  have  spoken  much  of  the  world,  and  I 
hope  much  to  its  credit,  but  there  is  nothing 
more  creditable  to  the  world  to  be  said  than 
this, — that  it  will  not  praise,  obey,  or  toler- 
ate, if  possible,  anything  short  of  the  com- 
plete spiritual  vision  and  passion  which  are 
implied  in  the  Christianity  of  which  it  has 
heard,  and  which  has  gotten  over  the  ancient 
boundaries  between  what  we  have  called  the 
Church  and  the  world,  and  has,  therefore, 
given  the  world  such  inerrant  criteria  for 
judging  us. 

The  willingness  of  the  world  to  adopt  any 
being  who  will  meet  its  cry  for  spiritual  lead- 
ership is  pathetic  and  reassuring  to  the  least 
of  us.  But  this  must  not  leave  any  of  us 
content  to  be  less  than  our  gospel  for  the 


34  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

world  seeks  to  make  of  you  and  me.  Angelic 
indeed  is  the  temper  of  the  world  at  its 
noblest  and  best ;  and  its  best  appears  when 
you  and  I  are  at  our  best.  Nobility  ennobles 
the  ignoble  by  contact.  Quick  becomes  the 
feeling  of  obligation  roused  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  interior  energies  unused,  and  the 
demand  for  dynamic  power  that  shall  start 
and  run  the  machinery  is  instant  and  half 
sublime.  But  the  world  is  not  ever  thus. 
Yet  is  its  impatience  of  us  not  a  mark  of  its 
latent  loyalty  to  a  divine  origin  ?  Admit  that 
the  world,  at  its  worst,  has  such  a  conception 
of  what  the  ministry  of  Jesus  ought  to  be  and 
do  and,  therefore,  have,  in  the  form  of  ex- 
haustless  influence  for  redemption  and  recre- 
ation, that  it  is  half-demonic  in  its  wrath  and 
indignation  at  the  appearance  of  anything 
short  of  that  which  is  real.  Devilish  it  may 
be,  but  the  devils  show  themselves  never  so 
much  fallen  angels  as  when  they  cry  out, 
"  Paul  I  know,  and  Jesus  I  know,  but  who 
are  you?"  "The  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
was  magnified  "  then  ;  it  is  being  magnified 
now,  but  the  evil  spirit  has  done  much  to 


ITS   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   MINISTRY     35 

master  and  prevail  and  to  leave  assumption 
and  pretense  naked  and  wounded  as  afore- 
time. 

The  situation  abroad  in  the  mission  coun- 
tries is  thus  complicated  by  the  presence  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer.  Along  with  much  prac- 
tical unbrotherliness  on  our  part  as  a  people, 
that  prayer  has  changed  the  atmosphere,  laid 
humanity  under  the  spell  of  a  hope  that  a 
civilization  founded  on  the  fatherhood  of  God 
and  brotherhood  of  man  is  possible.  It  has 
won  the  brain  and  heart  of  heathendom  to  a 
lively  expectation  that  the  things  that  ought 
to  be  shall  be.  And  the  course  of  Eastern 
events  is  therefore  awkward  and  problematic. 
The  question  coming  to  them  and  to  us  is 
what  shall  be  done  with  the  incongruity  aris- 
ing from  the  effect  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  as 
Christianity's  charter  and  the  presence  of  the 
unbrotherly  and  scheming  representatives  of 
so-called  Christian  governments.  So  also 
and  more,  here  at  home,  the  situation  is 
made  acute  by  the  education  and  trained 
habit  of  the  modern  mind.  There  is  nothing 
more  disastrous  in  a  community  where  the 


36  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

world  has  been  touched  by  the  message  of 
the  Church — which  message  has  been  sub- 
limely taught  by  it,  and  should  be  the  theme 
of  its  ministry — than  our  apparent  inability 
to  meet  in  sincerity  of  utterance,  wisdom  of 
leadership,  and  companionship  of  conduct, 
the  just  anticipations  which  such  mightily 
stated  motive  powers  lead  logical  minds  to 
entertain. 

I  shall  have  time  to  consider,  and  only  for 
a  moment,  these  implications  of  the  truth  of 
the  fatherhood  of  God,  as  they  develop  in 
the  form  of  anticipations  in  the  mind  of  a 
world  which  is  growing  more  logical  and 
which,  therefore,  will  ask  that  these  anticipa- 
tions, justly  founded  as  such,  shall  be  made 
good.  Recent  experience  in  a  service  of  six 
months  on  what  is  now  known  as  the  Vice 
Commission  appointed  by  the  mayor  of  the 
city  of  Chicago,  has  only  served  to  quicken 
my  appreciation  of  the  working  vitality  of 
this  truth.  Through  most  revolting  and  al- 
most nameless  crimes  against  society  and 
sins  against  God  and  humanity,  I  have 
traced,  without  ever  once  losing  sight  of  it, 


ITS   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   MINISTRY     37 

the  presence  of  a  desperate  confidence  that 
the  soul  of  the  most  depraved  belongs  to 
God  inherently.  Something  has  gone  into 
the  heart  of  hellish  malignity  and  loathsome 
impurity — something  that  differentiates  itself 
faintly  or  cries  out  in  tragic  revolt ;  and  the 
faith  lingers  there  that  whatever  else  God  is 
as  creator,  and  provider,  and  judge,  He  is 
the  Father  of  us  all. 

I  have  spoken  in  the  den  of  wild  beasts 
and  heard  others  speak  in  the  lairs  of  in- 
iquity, when  death  was  the  only  other  stain- 
less presence.  I  have  sat  for  six  hours  at  a 
stretch  to  hear  only  the  noxious  story  of 
human  perversion  and  iniquity,  but  I  have 
never  failed  to  find  at  the  bottom  of  the 
slimy  pit,  when  the  soul  had  sinned  down  to 
its  farthest  possibility,  a  certain  rebounding 
sense  that  this  one  fact  of  utmost  precious- 
ness  is  left — the  Fatherhood  of  God. 

We  have  only  to  open  the  Gospel  of  John, 
which  has  given  many  of  us  a  good  deal  of 
trouble  as  we  have  lived  with  its  husk  only 
but  whose  message  will  prove  most  richly 
refreshing  to  our  age,  the  likest  to  its  own 


38  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

in  all  deeper  aspects  of  life,  to  find  in  its  kernel 
the  germinal  and  harvest-producing  concep- 
tion of  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  conse- 
quent truth  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  stated 
and  enforced,  not  only  on  the  lips  and  the 
life  of  Jesus,  but  in  the  behaviour,  atmosphere, 
and  even  the  most  undeliberate  attitude  of 
those  who  are  influenced  by  Him.  Elsewhere 
and  to-night,  I  wish  to  study  with  you  a 
remote  adumbration  of  this  radiance,  in 
Andrew,  Simon-Peter's  brother.  Wherever 
preaching  alone  has  placed  this  truth  fore- 
most and  in  the  form  of  speech,  strong  asser- 
tion, or  continuous  repetition  only,  the  most 
doleful  results  have  followed.  It  is  the  most 
dangerous  of  truths  to  announce,  if  its  an- 
nouncer is  not  living  it.  To  merely  put  it 
into  phrase  is  to  convert  the  minister  into  a 
tantalizer  of  the  most  divinely  implanted 
thirsts.  The  last  thing  for  a  preacher  even  to 
mention  is  the  fatherhood  of  God,  unless  that 
same  minister  embodies  it,  breathes  it,  literally 
sheds  it  forth  in  his  own  personality  and  life. 
Men  are  very  like  children  in  their  straight- 
forwardness and  simplicity,  if  they  have  ever 


ITS   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   MINISTRY     39 

once  felt  the  reality  of  the  divine  fatherhood. 
The  thing  they  will  not  permit  is  for  you  and 
me  to  make  any  substitute  for  this  imperial 
fact  and  factor  in  the  uplooking  human  life. 

Once  on  a  doleful  day,  when  the  great  Pres- 
ident's soul  was  sorely  burdened,  and  various 
members  of  the  Cabinet  were  looking  in  vain 
for  him  in  the  White  House  at  Washington, 
Mr.  Lincoln's  little  boy,  called  Tad,  came  into 
the  presence  of  Secretary  Chase  and  said,  "  I 
want  my  father."  The  boy  was  in  trouble, 
for  he  had  been  badly  used  by  a  belligerent 
child  in  a  physical  contest.  Now,  suppose 
Chase,  with  the  Olympian  forehead,  had  said 
to  him  with  the  patronage  which  we  some- 
times visit  cruelly  upon  those  who  would  be 
helped,  albeit  without  circumstance  and  the 
pomp  of  learning,  "  My  little  fellow,  I  will  tell 
the  Chief  Executive  of  the  nation,  who  will 
soon  prove  himself  to  me,  his  servant,  as  the 
master  of  unparallelled  difficulties  in  finance, 
that  you  wish  him."  It  would  have  been  a 
true  statement,  but  the  boy  would  have  said 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  again,  "I 
want    my  father."      Little    Tad    encounters 


40  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Seward  with  a  cry  straight  from  his  heart, 
"  I  want  my  father."  Suppose  Seward  had 
said,  "  I  will  get  for  you  the  most  remarkable 
diplomatic  mind  who  ever  warded  off  from  a 
young  nation  in  sore  straits  the  attack  of  the 
British  Empire."  The  Secretary  of  State 
would  have  told  the  truth.  The  boy,  how- 
ever, wipes  the  blood  and  dirt  away,  and 
says,  "  I  want  my  father."  The  redoubtable 
and  proud  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War,  hears 
this  boy's  appeal  and  tells  him,  "  I  will  get  for 
you  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Armies  of 
the  United  States."  Stanton  knew  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  this  capacity.  He  was  telling  the 
truth  about  Lincoln,  but  it  was  not  the  boy's 
truth.  Lincoln's  child's  truth  was  heard  in 
the  sob,  "  I  want  n\y  father^ 

This  is  the  situation  with  us  all  and  many  of 
the  philosophers.  The  soul  of  man  has  been 
crying,  "  I  want  my  Father."  The  soul  is 
constitutionally  religious  because  of  the  soul's 
essential  childhood  unto  God's  fatherhood. 
The  soul  can  have  permanently  no  other 
religion  but  a  religion  in  which  this  filial 
relationship  from  the  hitherside  shall  meet  an 


ITS   EXPRESSION   THROUGH   MINISTRY     4I 

eternal  parental  relationship  from  the  thither- 
side.  The  idea  of  fatherhood  is  in  the  Old 
Testament,  but  dimly  described.  The  idea 
of  fatherhood  is  manifested  in  the  word 
'•  Jupiter  " — "  Heaven-Father."  But  now,  the 
fact  and  force  of  divine  fatherhood  is  no 
longer  kinetic  ;  it  is  dynamic  energy.  Jesus 
Christ  in  His  Sonship  to  God  and  through 
the  fullness  of  His  brotherhood  unto  us  lives  it, 
breathes  it,  and  dies  for  it,  and  arises  from  the 
grave  with  its  might  and  majesty.  He  has 
and  is  the  answer  to  our  cry  :  '*  I  want  my 
Father." 

Mr.  Spencer  has  been  saying,  "  Here  is  the 
Force  which  urges  on  from  homogeneity 
through  heterogeneity."  He  has  told  the 
truth.  "  But  I  want  my  Father,"  the  soul 
says.  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  had  a  charming 
habit  of  introducing  us  to  the  "  Eternal  not 
ourselves  that  makes  for  righteousness."  He 
was  well-intentioned  and  has  spoken  a  truth 
concerning  our  God.  And  so  on  we  might 
go  with  many  of  the  philosophers,  as  Tad 
Lincoln  might  have  gone  on  with  his  father's 
cabinet,  each  of  the  illustrious  men  characteriz- 


42  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

ing  the  man  Abraham  Lincoln  from  a  distinct 
point  of  view  which  not  only  defined  him  but 
confined  him  to  a  statement.  The  deepest 
and  most  revealing  relationship  to  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  not  that  which  existed  and  grew 
strong  and  was  of  untold  importance  be- 
tween him  and  Seward  or  Chase  or  Stanton. 
Little  Tad  held  the  supreme  place.  The 
bedraggled,  needy,  desperate  soul  of  hu- 
manity wants  its  Father. 

Not  the  philosophers  alone  have  erred  with 
magnificence  of  phraseology  at  this  juncture 
in  the  soul's  life.  Theological  definings  and 
refinings  have  all  been  confinings,  and  the 
divine  fatherhood  has  been  shut  out,  not 
so  much  by  our  phraseology,  for  that  amounts 
to  but  little,  as  by  our  unbrotherliness.  All 
brotherliness  comes  from  sonship,  which  ra- 
diates and  discovers  the  sonship  unto  God  of 
the  other  brothers.  So  unbrotherliness  in 
sentiment  and,  therefore,  in  statement,  even 
the  unbrotherliness  that  exiles  our  brother 
most  effectively  when  we  are  calling  him 
*'  dear  brother,"  and  pushing  our  argument 
or    urging    our   appeal   to   him   in   an   un- 


ITS  EXPRESSION  THROUGH  MINISTRY    43 

brotherly  mood  or  fashion — comes  from  lack 
of  our  sonship  unto  God  as  a  practical  expe- 
rience. Once  more  let  me  say  that  if  Emer- 
son's words  were  ever  applicable,  they  are 
true  here — "  What  you  are  speaks  so  much 
louder  than  what  you  say  that  I  cannot  hear 
what  you  say."  The  world  has  a  fine  ear  for 
the  report  of  one's  character  on  this  supreme 
matter  of  its  sonship  unto  God.  Whoever 
makes  this  report  credible  has  the  world's 
heart. 

The  three  preachers  I  have  known  most  in- 
timately, and  who  have  been  most  effective 
in  our  time,  have  uttered  proportionately  the 
least  number  of  phrases  about  the  fatherhood 
of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  They 
have  simply  lived  it.  It  came  as  an  aura 
from  their  pulpits.  Neither  Phillips  Brooks, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  nor  Joseph  Parker  could 
help  the  aura  of  personal  brotherliness  in  ar- 
gument, appeal,  consolation,  guidance,  or 
instruction.  Its  origin  was  in  the  Light  of 
Lights — the  fatherhood  of  God.  When  one 
of  these  men  was  encountered  in  the  street, 
the  urchin  or  the  peddler,  or  the  philosopher 


44  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

attested  the  presence  of  the  incommunicable 
secret,  until  it  opened  and  was  fragrant  and 
lovely  as  a  flower. 

A  similar  story  to  this  too  little  known  in- 
cident might  be  told  of  either  or  both  of  these 
other  men.  Mr.  Beecher  was  passing  on  one 
morning  in  early  spring  through  a  thronged 
street.  The  snow  was  melting  and  the  streets 
were  wet  and  dirty.  A  vagrant  wind  had 
blown  a  newsboy's  papers  everywhither. 
Striving  in  vain  to  pick  them  up,  he  had  lost 
heart  and  was  crying,  wiping  his  eyes  with 
dirty  hands  which  left  his  face  in  sad  condition. 
Mr.  Beecher,  coming  along,  took  the  little  fel- 
low up  into  his  arms.  Those  great  orbs  which 
the  day  before  had  commanded  thousands 
with  such  eloquence  of  eye  as  Beecher  had 
to  give,  looked  upon  the  boy  and  saw  through 
the  dirt  and  tears  and  trouble,  straight  into 
his  heart.  "  What's  the  matter,  my  litde  fel- 
low ? "  said  the  orator  ;  no,  the  big-brother. 
He  was  only  a  great  big-brother  then.  The 
boy's  tears  of  sorrow  were  chased  from  his 
cheeks  by  tears  of  happiness  and  gratitude, 
and    he  replied  to  the  man  whom  he  had 


ITS   EXPRESSION  THROUGH   MINISTRY     45 

never  seen  before,  but  who  was  then  mani- 
festing the  fatherhood  of  God  through  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  "  Nothin' ;  nothin',  now 
you've  come."  It  is  an  old  story,  but  I 
heard  Mr.  Beecher  the  next  Sunday,  and  he 
treated  that  aggregation  of  God's  hapless 
children  in  the  same  way.  As  he  prayed 
finally,  we  all  felt  that  if  there  had  been  any- 
thing the  matter,  it  was  all  over  in  this 
Epiphany.  The  fatherhood  of  God  lived 
through  the  brotherliness  of  the  man,  and  yet 
he  said  not  a  word  about  either.  He  was 
their  incarnation,  as  any  broken  and  sad  old 
world  like  ours,  having  once  heard  of  the  In- 
carnation in  Christ,  has  the  right  to  expect  us 
to  be.  As  I  shall  try  to  show  all  along  our 
way,  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  incarnation 
touching  the  minister. 


LECTURE  II 

THE   SPIRITUAL    LIFE 
AND  NEW  VIEW-POINTS 


LECTURE  II 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND  NEW 
VIEW-POINTS 

THAT  positions  have  changed  in  the 
realms  of  Philosophy  and  Theology, 
which  give  to  the  Christian  ministry 
a  new  attitude  towards  certain  hitherto  famil- 
iar facts  and  factors  in  the  religious  life,  no 
one  can  doubt.  Especially  in  the  privilege 
and  task  of  preaching,  these  transforma- 
tions appear  to  many  to  be  decisive  and 
even  revolutionary.  It  is  of  the  first  impor- 
tance that  the  man  who  enters  the  ministry 
of  Jesus  to-day  should  find,  in  himself  and  in 
his  knowledge  of  history,  a  way  of  rightly 
judging  the  values  of  this  changeful  yet  per- 
manent experience  of  man  in  religion.  He 
ought  to  be  able  to  determine  much  by  the 
depth  and  strength  of  current  in  his  own 
spiritual  life.  He  must  at  once  reflect  that 
whatever  transformations  may  have  occurred 
49 


50  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

along  the  shore  of  this  stream,  which  has 
flowed  through  him  because  he  is  a  part,  in- 
deed, and,  as  it  were,  a  single  field  of  the  wide 
humanity  through  whose  breadth  and  length 
this  stream  of  religion  has  so  long  been  flow- 
ing, there  is  evidence  in  the  vegetation,  in 
the  grasses  and  trees  upon  the  banks  which 
are  significantly  different  in  hue  of  colour  and 
luxuriousness  of  growth,  that  here  is  a  Mis- 
sissippi. It  has  entered  a  spring-tide  and  is 
moving  southward  where  it  shall  find  the  sea. 
I  insist  that  the  Spiritual  Life  alone  will  en- 
able a  man  to  ascertain  this  fact.  An  un- 
spiritual  man  will  set  himself  against  this 
truth.  These  things  along  the  bank,  trees 
and  grasses,  are  from  the  life-giving  stream  ; 
their  changing  qualities  attest  the  innumer- 
able vitalities  of  the  water  as  it  touches  the 
land,  quite  as  much  as  they  attest  the  capac- 
ity for  being  vitalized,  on  the  part  of  the 
land,  when  it  is  laved  by  the  water.  As  he 
knows  God  and  a  man  in  the  form  and  fea- 
ture of  himself — man  created  in  God's  image 
— and  studies  God  and  man  in  his  own  ex- 
perience;   and,   in   addition   to   this,   as   he 


AND  NEW  VIEW-POINTS  5 1 

knows  God  and  man  in  Jesus  Christ,  through 
his  experience  of  reconciliation  and  the  holy 
life  ;  and,  still  more  than  this,  as  he  knows 
God  and  man  working  together  in  the  ranges 
of  the  life  immortal,  accomplishing  the  things 
hinted  in  the  vision  of  the  God-man  and 
realizing  those  ideals  of  Being  which  have 
sprung  from  the  presence  and  passion  of  the 
God-man, — indeed,  only  as  a  man  who  has 
in  him  the  ministry  of  Jesus  shall  thus  know 
and  relive,  in  his  own  spiritual  life,  the  moral 
achievement  and  expectancy  of  God  mani- 
fest in  the  flesh  through  Jesus  Christ,  can  he 
and  will  he  see  what  changes  signify.  Only 
thus  will  he  see  how  these  same  phenomena 
of  religion,  which  are  so  persistent  and  yet  so 
various  as  to  colour  and  size,  are  not  new 
things  at  all.  Each  is  watered  as  a  tree  on 
the  bank  in  Louisiana  is  watered,  in  the  same 
way  and  by  the  same  stream,  as  a  tree  on 
the  bank  of  the  same  river  has  been  watered 
in  Minnesota  or  Illinois. 

This  is  without  any  doubt  as  true,  even 
if  the  Minnesota  tree  feels  the  stream  about 
its  roots  much  earlier  in  time  than  the  Loui- 


52  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

siana  tree  feels  it  when  the  river  nears  the 
sea.  If  a  man  accustoms  himself  to  the 
truth  that  the  Spiritual  Life  of  the  race  flows 
through  him,  because  he  is  one  of  the  race, 
and  yet  that  it  is  vastly  larger  than  his  nar- 
row area  may  describe,  he  has  reached  the 
point  where  such  an  outlook  is  as  valuable 
as  that  of  Schliermacher  was  to  him  years 
ago.  He  may  easily  share  the  serenity  amid 
changes  which  belonged  to  Horace  Bushnell, 
and,  first  of  all,  led  Pascal  to  say  that  "  hu- 
man history  is  as  the  story  of  a  single  indi- 
vidual, ever  growing,  and  ever  learning." 
It  is  the  experience  of  this  great  racial  move- 
ment which  gives  dignity  to  the  preaching 
of  such  men  as  understand  and  welcome 
changes  presented  to  our  vision,  while  we 
move  on  and  ever  on. 

Let  us  look  at  certain  of  these  changes,  in 
this  light.  We  must  agree  that  it  is  because 
man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  that  our 
rehgion  is  possible.  Its  distinctive  expe- 
riences spring  out  of  the  fact  that  man,  hav- 
ing been  made  in  the  image  of  God  and  be- 
ing a  child  of  God  Himself,  must  love  and  be 


AND  NEW  VIEW-POINTS  53 

loved  with  such  personalness  of  loving  and 
lovableness  that  love  itself  shall  become  in- 
carnate. It  is  the  Incarnate  Love  which  con- 
cretely reutters  fully  these  truths,  and  makes 
both  soil  and  sky  a  welcome  and  assurance 
for  the  seeds  of  a  permanent  religion  of  hu- 
manity. Neither  of  these  elements,  which 
our  seed  must  count  upon,  has  been  so  accen- 
tuated by  the  significance  of  man's  life  in  any 
time,  as  they  have  in  our  own. 

Religion  is  more  imperial  and  humanity  is 
more  pervasive,  as  working  conceptions,  than 
ever  before.  All  faithful  preaching  will  recog- 
nize the  permanency  of  these  realities,  amid 
all  the  changes  which  now  happen  to  be  in 
concert  of  approval,  with  regard  to  the  em- 
phasis which  our  life  places  upon  religion 
and  humanity.  The  preacher  of  the  twentieth 
century  comes  upon  this  being  called  man, 
first  as  he  is  seen  in  himself,  for  before  all 
else  the  minister  is  a  man  ;  and  he  is  such  a 
man  that  any  ministry  to  humanity  must  dis- 
tinguish the  minister  himself  as  one  of  the 
manliest  of  men  about  him.  He  also  knows 
man,  outside  of   his  own  self-consciousness 


54  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

and  self-study,  as  a  being  to  be  ministered 
unto,  according  to  a  message  and  by  an  in- 
fluence which  the  minister  receives  from 
above,  and  which  are  of  such  a  sort  as  to 
reveal  what  man  essentially  is  and  what 
Almighty  Love  means  him  to  be.  At  the 
moment,  our  minister  would  not  if  he  could, 
and  could  not  if  he  would  escape  what  the 
world,  whom  he  addresses  in  his  sermons,  has 
come  to  think  of  man.  Very  much  of  what 
we  think  of  God  and  of  what  God  can  do  for 
a  man  in  the  immortal  life,  through  the 
Church  and  in  spite  of  the  disaster  of  sin 
— very  much  especially  of  what  we  think  of 
man's  Christ — depends  upon  our  conception 
of  man. 

Many  sermons  would  indicate  that  the 
preacher  has  begun,  in  remote  regions,  to  do 
his  thinking  about  man,  the  thing  nearest  to 
him.  He  unfortunately  habituates  his  audi- 
ence to  a  repetition  of  his  own  way  of  ap- 
proaching, through  a  series  of  unknowables, 
this  one  knowable  and  familiar  fact  and 
factor  with  which  the  minister  has  to  grapple 
most  intimately — Man.     If  the   man  in  the 


AND  NEW  VIEW-POINTS  55 

pew  catches  this  habit — and  it  is  most  con- 
tagious— he  will  never  know  himself  as  a 
man,  except  remotely.  It  would  be  a  calam- 
ity whose  fatality  would  speedily  remove  you 
from  any  real  ministry,  if  you  were  to  miss 
what  our  age  offers  as  the  accumulation  of 
the  past  and  especially  the  product  of  its  un- 
surpassed laboratories  and  equipment  in  the 
study  of  man  at  the  present.  Bear  witness 
of  the  truth  that  the  best  laboratory  is  your- 
self. 

There  are,  then,  other  means  of  study  which 
will  be  invaluable.  One  such  poet  as  Brown- 
ing, in  his  answer  as  to  what  is  man,  outdis- 
tances Shakespeare,  for  he  has  modern  equip- 
ment and  laboratories  and  uses  them.  Above 
all,  in  himself,  the  minstrel  knows  himself. 
The  vitality  and  indeed  revealing,  in  his  ac- 
counts of  humanity,  seem  to  have  come  from 
his  having  sat  at  the  table  in  the  upper  room 
when  our  Lord  said,  "  One  of  you  shall  be- 
tray Me,"  the  poet  answering  with  his  ques- 
tion, "  Lord,  is  it  I?"  The  possibility  of  such 
crime  as  that  of  "  The  Ring  and  the  Book," 
the  experience  of  "  Mr.  Sludge,  the  Medium," 


56  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

the  episodes  in  the  philosophic  struggles  of 
"  Paracelsus,"  the  falls  in  "  Pippa  Passes " 
or  "  Andrea  Delsarto," — this  possibility  is 
that  of  his  own  personality.  The  mingling 
of  those  streams  of  knowledge  proceeding 
from  his  acquaintance  with  physiology  and 
psychology  is  humanly  felt  and  estimated. 
Streams  which  here  murmur  and  sing  and 
swirl  through  man's  ethical  history  show  the 
greatness,  often  the  failure  and  recovery 
of  man's  spiritual  faculty.  He  must  have 
recognized  at  least  their  possibility  in  him- 
self. He  is  thus  made  humanity's  minstrel. 
If  these  are  the  new  views  of  man  necessary 
to  be  collated  and  interpreted  by  the  min- 
strel, how  much  more  reverently  and  ener- 
getically must  they  be  mastered  by  the 
minister,  who  knows  that  the  theology  in 
his  preaching  must  conform  itself  in  some 
manner  to  this  anthropology,  whose  body  of 
facts  creates  part  of  the  mental  life  and 
atmosphere  of  his  congregation  and  the 
community  in  which  he  lives. 

Modern    science    has    not  abolished,  but 
rather  it  has  deepened  the  wonders  of  human 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  57 

life  ;  and  philosophy  has  not  relieved  them  of 
complexities.  The  old  wonder  came  of  dark- 
ness, the  new  wonder  comes  of  light ;  the  old 
puzzle  was  of  concealment,  the  new  puzzle  is 
of  revealment.  The  man  to  whom  the  min- 
strel in  "Caliban  on  Setebos"  comes  as  a 
singer  is  not  more  sympathetically  and  vitally 
attached  to  the  animal  life  which  we  would 
like  to  think  is  far  below  him,  than  is  the  man 
to  whom  the  minister  comes  as  a  preacher, 
however  daringly  and  soaringly  he  is  seen  by 
the  same  science  and  philosophy  to  make 
towards  citizenship  in  realms  ethereal.  My 
boyhood  remembers  John  B.  Gough  crying 
out,  after  a  description  of  a  star  in  the  dark 
blue  night  and  a  description  of  an  Alp 
drenched  with  incommunicable  sunshine, 
"  These  are  sublime  ;  but  /  can  think  1 "  A 
whole  ministry  was  expressed  to  me,  in  that 
tremendous  contrast  which  gave  my  life  a 
new  elevation  through  his  inspiring  thought. 
John  B.  Gough  was  a  great  orator.  I 
had  heard  orators.  Here  was  something 
more.  Somehow  the  declaration  of  that  fact 
had  never  before  entered  the  process  of  my 


58  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

becoming  my  true  self,  and  with  such  a  com- 
mand as  to  set  me  thinking  right  royally.  A 
youth  limited  by  many  untoward  forces, 
having  less  than  most  of  the  delights  of  life, 
has  no  greater  wealth  suddenly  given  him 
than  Gough  conveyed  in  that  announcement. 
But  I  knew  even  then  that  the  speaker  had 
just  newly  vanquished  a  passion  of  his  lower 
self.  Was  he  less  my  priest  saying  to  me  in 
my  unsullied  youth,  "  /  can  think,"  than  if 
he  had  been  a  cleric  in  full  canonical  orders 
saying  to  me,  "  You  can  think"?  If  ever 
this  kind  of  thinking,  with  contemporary  aids 
to  the  study  of  man,  presented  rewards  in  the 
form  of  faith,  it  is  now.  Only  let  the  best  of 
us  in  thinking  hold  to  his  integrity,  as  to  the 
gain  of  Truth  for  its  own  sake. 

Now,  this  was  the  same  man  who  might 
have  taken  to  a  despairful  doctrine  of  life,  if  the 
obsolescent  account  of  him  made  in  modern 
thought  had  left  him  like  a  dust  heap  in  an 
earthquake,  or  a  worm  in  the  soft  moss.  The 
same  pulses  beat  in  the  modern  preacher's 
brain  and  heart.  The  minister  is  driven  to  a 
new  study  of  the  laws  of  this  being,  Man^  who 


AND  NEW  VIEW-POINTS  59 

contrasts  with  Alcyone  and  Matterhorn  in  this, 
that  he  can  and  does  think.  The  revelation 
of  God's  willingness  and  urgency  for  com- 
munion, divine  thinker  with  human  thinker, 
will  never  be  spoken  in  the  souls  of  your 
listening  congregation,  until  you  know  your 
superiority  over,  and  independence  of,  this 
enormous  material  universe.  This  independ- 
ence of  it  will  not  come  by  an  underestimate 
of  it.  He  who  utters  immortal  hopes  must 
be  something  more  than  a  blind  believer,  if 
he  shall  speak  them,  not  only  at  men,  but  in 
the  men  who  feel  one  end  of  this  very  con- 
trary existence  of  ours  pressing  down,  but 
only  by  the  gravity  of  matter. 

It  is  astonishing  how  little  the  new  revela- 
tion of  man  as  a  growing  being,  and  an 
almost  predestinatedly  progressive  one,  enters 
the  message  and  pervades  the  manner  of 
many  pulpits.  If  ever  a  fresh  breeze  blew 
towards  the  sail  of  any  craft,  it  is  this  scientific 
and  philosophic  assertion,  so  richly  proven  as 
a  truth,  that  man  must  progress.  A  pulpit 
is  decidedly  inhuman,  though  perhaps  not 
cruelly  so  by  choice,  when  its  preacher  is  not 


6o  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

living  in  and  speaking  out  of,  as  well  as 
speaking  into,  a  humanity  which  he  sees 
divinely  set  in  the  direction  of  "  the  far-ofi 
divine  event,  towards  which  the  whole  creation 
moves."  Progress  is  indeed  "  our  Being's 
end  and  aim."  The  willingness  of  many  a 
man  to  go  back  to  his  youth  and  childhood, 
for  his  delight,  comes  from  his  never  having 
been  inspired  and  inwardly  self-dedicated  to 
progress  illimitable.  The  ministry  which  has 
touched  him  has  never  fed  him  upon  eternal 
fare  and  provided  his  pilgrimage  with  the 
good  fortune  of  those  visions  which  arise  out 
of  his  being  discovered  to  himself,  as  a  liv- 
ing entity  whose  progress  demands  infinite 
time. 

He  must  progress  in  his  race  and  with  his 
kind,  and  after  well  ascertained  laws.  Let  us 
see  and  let  us  reach  the  celestial  side  of  them. 
Many  a  preacher  has  failed  to  see  that  the 
emphasis  of  our  attention  to  the  law  of  evo- 
lution, having  been  so  long  given  to  our 
origins,  rather  than  to  our  prospects,  ought 
now  at  least  to  be  changed.  Man  has  lately, 
for  the  most  part,  spent  his  time  in  finding 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  6 1 

out  how  he  came  thus  far,  whereas  he  would 
be  no  less  true  to  the  truth  of  evolution,  if  his 
spiritual  leader  and  guide  would  manifest 
first  of  all  in  himself,  by  the  upwardness  of 
his  spiritual  life  and  consequendy  by  that  of 
his  people,  by  some  means,  the  prospects  and 
involved  expectancies  for  himself  and  all  hu- 
manity ever  moving  on  and  upward.  The 
minister  must,  of  course,  understand  the  pres- 
ent day's  appreciation  of  powers  and  tenden- 
cies of  reversion,  but  he  builds  his  pulpit  upon 
the  breadths  of  assurance  and  hope  in  the 
upper  implications  of  conversion. 

Our  age  certainly  leads  any  man,  who 
would  deal  with  conduct  and  character,  into  a 
profounder  view  of  sin  than  any  other  age 
has  known.  It  does  this  by  emphasis  upon 
personality.  We  may  speak  as  we  choose 
after  the  manner  of  those  who,  forty  years 
ago,  had  a  very  respectful  hearing,  leading 
many  people  to  affirm  that  sin,  after  all,  is  but 
a  blunder,  rather  than  a  transgression  and  a 
rebellion  against  all  universal  order.  But  now 
the  minister  scarcely  needs,  even  thus,  to  com- 
pliment this  fading  view.     Moral  distinctions, 


62  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

even  if  the  fall  of  man  was  a  fall  upward, 
have  been  so  clarified  and  sharpened,  that,  if 
we  were  to  anticipate  no  other  consciousness 
of  law  which  would  make  us  know  sin  as 
Paul  knew  sin,  our  lower  self  is  less  attractive 
than  ever.  Our  upper  self  is  cleaving  to 
higher  ethical  visions,  and  it  commands  with 
increasing  interest.  Of  course,  as  we  develop 
upward,  we  shall  develop  away  from  the 
downward,  and  the  interest  in  our  ascent  will 
increase.  Sin  is  not  likely  to  look  less  sinful, 
in  the  superior  attractiveness  of  an  infinite 
goodness  which  evidently  is  pulling  towards 
the  heights.  The  topmost  height  is  the 
maintenance  of  personality. 

The  true  place  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  among 
men  is  not  to  be  made  by  the  minister,  in  the 
mind  of  modern  man,  through  his  insisting 
upon  grounding  the  unique  incarnation  upon 
the  Virgin  Birth,  whether  or  not  the  assertion 
of  the  Virgin  Birth  is  to  be  maintained,  so  much 
as  (i)  through  placing  the  Master  of  man 
in  His  vital  and  vitalizing  relationships  to  this 
being,  humanity,  at  once  so  great  and  so  per- 
sonal, whom  we  meet  on  the  street,  and  espe- 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  63 

cially  in  the  congregation,  and  (2)  through 
placing  Jesus  Christ  before  him  in  such  a  way 
as  to  reveal  the  fact  that  all  apparent  contrari- 
eties and  distances  in  his  own  personality  and 
experience  are  not  eternal  and  hopeless  oppo- 
sitions in  human  nature  and  experience.  They 
are  newly  revealed  in  Christ.  Christ's  per- 
sonality is  the  fact  which  comprehends  the 
very  puzzling  antagonisms  of  thinking ;  and 
the  minister's  life  in  Christ  alone  will  recon- 
cile all  the  truths  of  experience. 

When  humanity  is  known  and  discovered 
to  itself  by  the  minister,  either  in  the  depths 
of  its  iniquity  where  it  has  sinned  down  to 
the  bottom,  so  to  speak,  and  says  with  the 
prodigal,  "  I  will  arise,"  because  there  is 
nothing  but  the  "  I  "  left  and  there  is  nothing 
to  do  but  to  "  arise,"  or,  when  immortal  an- 
ticipations have  been  cherished  until  they 
have  filled  the  heavens  with  their  bloom,  it 
is  amazing  how  quickly  and  loyally  this  hu- 
manity will  respond  to  any  revelation  of  the 
Father-God.  Of  course,  if  a  man  persists  in 
preaching  to  men  as  if  a  human  being  is 
only  a   manufacture  and  not  a  creation  of 


64  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

God  in  His  own  image — if  a  minister  will  go 
on  negativing  and  stunting,  if  not  destroying, 
all  sense  of  a  man's  being  essentially  God's 
child,  then  he  may  be  sure  that  any  sudden 
employment  of  the  heavenly  music  will  not 
make  the  strings  which  have  rusted  in  mis- 
use, and  been  broken,  respond  in  harmony. 
What  we  need  to-day  in  our  ministry,  as  we 
appreciate  modern  views  of  man,  which,  as  we 
say,  change  his  soul-features,  is  not  more  a 
sympathetic  appreciation  of  what  the  divine 
is,  as  Jesus  will  reveal  it  in  God,  than  a  sim- 
ilar appreciation  of  what  the  human  is,  as 
Jesus  reveals  it  in  man. 

Two  things  are  likeliest,  just  now,  to  per- 
plex, where  they  ought  to  enlighten — the  fact 
of  personality,  against  which  such  an  unsuc- 
cessful attack  has  been  made,  and  the  fact  of 
the  subco7iscious  life  of  the  human  person, 
in  which  personality  seems  lost, — both  of 
which  have  been  elucidated  by  contemporary 
psychology  and  philosophy. 

Personality  is  the  most  interesting,  the  most 
eminent,  and  the  most  costly  item  in  the  list  of 
this  universe's  assets.     The  philosophy  of  the 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  65 

universe  which  has  most  instructed  us,  while 
it  has  more  nearly  revolutionized  our  con- 
ceptions of  the  universe  itself  and  the  human 
life  within  it  than  any  other,  is  precisely  the 
philosophy  which  emphasizes  the  prominence 
of  personality  and  presents  the  clearest  state- 
ment as  to  its  cost  and  value.  Beginning 
with  the  primordial  stuff,  forth  from  which 
things  higher,  and  ultimately  things  highest 
have  been  evolved,  v/e  have  seen  the  half- 
blind  units  of  force  apparently  moving  up- 
ward^in  their  accomplishment.  This  upward- 
ness  of  the  universal  movement  is  not  without 
eddies  in  the  stream.  Each  of  these  eddies 
whirls  backward  and  downward :  but  the 
stream  itself  zV^volves  these  revolving  back- 
ward movements  so  completely  that  the 
evolving  result  is  progress  towards  what  we 
admit  is  a  better  thing  or  state  of  things. 
All  ethical  reality  with  which  ministers  will 
have  to  do,  in  the  last  analysis  of  the  minis- 
ter's supreme  function,  will  root  itself  in  this 
upwardness  of  the  universal  movement.  Our 
power  as  preachers  will  come,  because  we 
stand  largely  upon  a  fact,  not  of  our  inven- 


66  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

tion  or  discovery,  not  even  of  such  revelation 
as  comes  from  a  book  or  a  series  of  books 
reverently  called  the  Bible,  except  as  all  these 
honour  and  illustrate  the  truth,  the  fact  that 
there  is  a  goal — an  universal  goal,  an  inten- 
tion from  the  beginning  which  is  now  an 
attention  in  man's  brain  unto  an  end — an 
order  which  is  upward-moving,  unifying  in 
its  sweep  all  movements,  making  them  sub- 
sidiary and  ultimately  harmonious — an  order, 
indeed,  whose  upwardness  of  movement  is 
now  so  much  an  affair  of  consciousness  in 
man's  mind  that  he  has  identified  it  v^iiki  good- 
ness and  its  opposite  with  evil;  his  behaviour 
in  its  favour  being  called  right,  and  his  con- 
duct in  opposition  to  it  being  called  wroiig. 

But,  without  anticipating,  it  is  well  to  fix  in 
your  minds  the  fact  that,  using  now  the  vo- 
cabulary of  theology  rather  than  that  of  phi- 
losophy, God,  who  Himself  is  the  Personality 
of  personalities,  is  so  interested  in  the  pro- 
duction of  personality,  to  begin  with,  that 
His  process  of  creation,  in  and  through  the 
universe,  brings  us  into  connection  with  a 
workshop   whose    every  tool,  from  atom  to 


AND  NEW  VIEW-POINTS  67 

planet,  is  devoted  to  that  one  end,  or  a  studio 
whose  scaffolding  built  around  the  crude  ma- 
terial upon  which  the  artist-sculptor  works, 
falls  away  finally,  only  to  disclose  the  most 
Godlike  thing,  man,  imperial  in  personality. 
He  is  touched  into  beauty  or  loveliness,  fea- 
tured by  such  chisels  as  are  results  of  causes 
and  causes  of  results,  and  so  a  part  of  nature, 
set  upon  the  task  of  revealing  personality. 
Man  is  at  the  summit  of  things.  By  a  long, 
long  way  of  storm  and  fire  and  earthquake 
and  vanquishings  he  had  been  led  to  per- 
sonality. 

It  is  agreed  that,  because  he  is  now  evolved 
from  the  physical  universe,  he  was  involved 
in  it,  at  the  first.  If  it  was  all  so  organized 
that  it  has,  at  length,  produced  him  with  his 
ability  to  say  "  /  am  /,"  he  is  at  once  revealed 
as  of  wondrous  worth.  The  assurance  that 
the  slowly  advancing  realm  which  we  call 
Nature — "  the  about-to-be-born  " — has  driven 
all  her  forces  towards  producing  what  has 
been  described  as  "  the  small  speck,  then  the 
speck  with  a  thin  line,"  and,  at  length,  she 
has    arrived   where   we    know    the    "  small 


68  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

speck "  as  the  brain  of  man  and  recognize 
"  the  thin  line  "  in  his  spinal  cord — this  as- 
surance places  man  and  personality  on  a 
summit  of  our  thought  and  regard  which 
nothing  but  the  cost  of  his  redemption  at 
Calvary  may  overtower.  With  human  con- 
sciousness and  its  phenomena,  this  is  enough 
to  awaken  new  admirations,  reverences,  en- 
thusiasms, and  hopes,  with  regard  to  any  hu- 
man personality.  The  assurance  of  modern 
science  that  every  movement  of  the  physical 
universe  upward  has  been  at  such  great  ex- 
penditure, and  that  every  movement  has  been 
towards  personality,  that  the  coarse  proto- 
plasm has  yielded  in  the  face  of  a  flower,  or  in 
the  half-descried  smile  on  an  ape's  face,  to 
some  resistless  impulse  towards  the  formal 
revealing  of  personality — this  ought  to  make 
a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  has  the  good- 
ness of  God  to  tell,  stand  in  awe,  until  he 
speaks  with  not  less  than  angelic  power  and 
persuasion  unto  men,  to  be  reconciled  unto 
God 

This    most    costly    accomplishment   of    a 
whole    universe — man's   personality — is   the 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  69 

indubitable  attribute  which  makes  him  ca- 
pable of  religion. 

Measure  the  significance  of  these  facts  to 
the  minister  of  that  religion.  First,  religion 
is  a  personal  relationship  unto  a  person :  the 
highest  religion  possible  is  a  personal  relation 
of  love,  obedience,  and  trust  unto  and  with 
the  Personality  Supreme.  Secondly,  the 
maintenance  and  development  of  human  per- 
sonality are  to  be  had  only  through  a  religion 
which  draws  out  the  human  personality 
through  love,  obedience,  and  trust,  and  draws 
him  out  unto  ends  which  are  eternal  and  in- 
finite. This  educing  of  his  personality  God- 
ward — this  education  of  humanity — includes 
his  redemption  and  sanctification.  This  is  the 
newly  apprehended  basis  of  a  religion  for  hu- 
manity, a  religion  which  is  the  Spiritual  Life, 
and  which  must  comprehend  all  men's  inter- 
ests in  the  self-realization  of  human  person- 
ality. 

What  has  the  Christian  minister  to  ofTer 
to  a  humanity  thus  instructed,  and  thus  filled 
with  the  new  desires  and  hopes  which  these 
views  must  stimulate  ? 


yo  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

I.  The  Personal  God. 

II.  The  Personal  Christ. 

III.  A  program  of  human  progress  in 
which  each  man's  personality  shall  be  at- 
tained in  the  brotherhood  of  man — each  per- 
sonality giving  all  his  own  and  receiving  all 
from  every  one. 

I.  What  other  religion  or  message  to 
men  compares  with  yours,  my  brother,  in 
its  portrait  of  Personality  ?  ''  I  am  that  I  am'' 
— the  Holy  Name  is  almost  awful  in  its  self- 
assertion.  None  but  Infinite  Power,  Holi- 
ness, Love,  could  hold  the  human  mind  to 
such  a  vision  of  reality,  and  then  only  by 
self-revelation.  God  is  always  saying  to 
weak-hearted  and  rebellious  humanity,  "Tell 
them  :  /  am  hath  sent  Me,"  The  ennobling 
contagion  of  this  Personality  must  come  into 
the  minister  of  God,  always,  as  it  came  to 
Moses,  aforetime. 

II.  The  personality  of  Jesus  is  the  most 
redoubtable  fact,  in  a  world  slipping  and 
sliding  with  frightful  miscellaneousness  of 
interest  in  its  own  ideals.  "  /  am  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life."     What  language  is 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  7 1 

this  of  self-respectful,  divine  personality  !  "  / 
am  the  resurrection!"  What  an  annihilat- 
ing sentence  to  Death,  which  always  assumes 
the  manners  of  personality  to  our  impersonal 
faithlessness!  The  manner  of  Jesus'  speech 
as  to  the  personality  of  the  Father  shows 
that  He  caught  the  accent  of  the  divine  from 
God  Himself :  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto 
and  I  work."  "I  ascend  unto  My  Father 
and  your  Father  and  to  My  God  and  to  your 
God."     "  Before  Abraham  was,  /  am'' 

III.  The  religion  which  Jesus  has  left  us, 
with  all  His  life  and  words,  is  Jesus  Christ 
Himself.  His  actions  and  His  words  were 
and  are  the  fragrance  and  beauty  thrown  off 
from  the  flower :  He  Himself  is  the  blossom. 
•'  Believe  in  Me,"  He  says,  "  He  that  believeth 
in  Me  and  My  words" — He  Himself  is  first 
and  foremost.  Personal  religion  takes  the 
form  of  service,  then  of  friendship,  then  of 
communion,  and  finally  the  form  of  glorifica- 
tion with  Him.  It  is  all  heart  to  heart  and 
heart  for  heart  experience.  No  one  really 
preaches  Christianity,  who  misses  this.  The 
reward   of  bringing   to   men,   each   man  in 


72  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

search  for  his  true  personality,  this  personal 
Christ  as  the  Divine  Self-revelation,  is  some- 
thing for  which  angels  might  long.  It  is  the 
sight  of  a  discovered  self,  or  a  recovered  self 
— all  illuminated  in  the  light  and  love  of 
God,  set  upon  tasks  which  shall  evermore 
strengthen,  refine,  and  exalt  the  rescued  and 
sanctified  personality,  as  the  man  grows  like 
unto  God. 

Jesus'  program  of  human  progress  was 
and  is  altogether  personal.  He  was  never 
mdividualistic,  but  always  this  most  Personal 
of  Persons  found  the  social  privilege  and 
duty  included  in  the  natural  outflow  of 
His  rich  inner  life.  God's  children  were  all 
personal.  The  woman  who  touched  His  gar- 
ment, pushing  her  need  amidst  the  crowd 
which  had  no  personality,  until  her  hand 
touched  His  robe's  hem,  was  reasserting  her 
personality  in  the  presence  of  His  own.  All 
men  found  in  Him  a  vision  and  realization  of 
personal  being  and  life  which  is  salvation. 
All  true  preaching,  or  pastoral  labour,  seeks 
to  break  up  the  dreadful  impersonalness  of 
life  beneath  a  crust  of  sin  or  ignorance,  to 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  73 

get  the  hand  of  need  into  the  loving  grasp  of 
God  who  alone  hath  the  suppHes  in  Him- 
self. But,  instantly,  this  once  poor  hand, 
now  so  tenderly  and  yet  so  strongly  grasped, 
comes  to  be  a  helping  hand  to  all  others. 
Man  becomes  Godlike.  The  Fatherhood  of 
God  revealed  in  the  personality  of  Jesus, 
His  Son,  our  Brother,  has  appeared  in  the 
Brotherhood  of  Man.  Its  plan  and  hope 
tingle  with  blood.  Its  dream  is  that  of  a 
City  of  God,  in  which  personal  salvation  will 
sing  its  new  song. 

Now,  our  ability — if  it  may  be  spoken  of 
so  coldly — this  ability,  v/hich  we  must  pray 
and  live  for,  to  communicate  of  God's  per- 
sonality unto  human  personalities  that  which 
Christ  Jesus  completely  manifested  through 
His  personality — the  Divine  Life  in  Humanity 
— this  power  is  surely  an  achievement  of 
personality,  yours  and  mine,  discovered, 
cherished,  and  made  glorious  in  the  Spirit- 
ual Life.  The  last  of  all  things  which  may 
be  communicated  to  a  personality,  by  means 
of  anything  impersonal,  is  personality,  in 
message  or  in  influence.     All  goodness,  vir- 


74  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

tue,  love,  and  any  and  all  other  living  in- 
fluences and  realities  must  have  personal 
origins,  resources  and  connections,  or  none. 
What  I  am  pleading  for  here,  as  you  must 
see,  is  far  from  the  individuality  which  sepa- 
rates, and  is  centrifugal.  It  ends  in  egotism 
and  divides  from  the  brotherhood  of  man  in 
self-interest.  I  plead  for  the  awakened  image 
of  God,  living  by  love  and  lifting  all  and 
everything  to  unity  of  blessing  by  the  sub- 
lime attractions  of  excellence.  I  need  not 
tell  you  how  to  live  for  it.  Christ's  own 
secret  of  personal  influence  will  be  yours 
and  mine,  only  when  we  accept  for  God's 
sake,  and  the  sake  of  our  brethren,  the 
awful  gift  of  personality,  to  be  given  into 
His  keeping  and  disciplined  by  His  guid- 
ance. 

Having  said  so  much  as  to  Personality,  as  a 
subject  and  object  for  the  mind  and  mission 
of  the  minister,  it  is  well  to  consider  one  of 
the  apparent  contrarieties  arising  in  the 
highest  experience  of  the  personality,  at  its 
best  estate — a  fact  in  the  soul's  life  which 
modern   psychology  has   brought  to  notice 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  75 

with  great  emphasis, — the  souV s  subconscious 
life. 

I  believe  it  would  be  well  for  us  to  have, 
in  each  of  our  seminaries,  a  department  of 
study — and  with  a  master  at  its  head — which 
might  be  called  Philosophical  Psychology. 
We  do  not  need  to  wait  for  the  establishment 
of  such  a  foundation,  in  order  to  obtain  great 
good  from  certain  results  of  the  profound, 
and  therefore  sympathetic,  investigations 
which  have  been  carried  on  in  our  time. 
One  of  these  investigations  has  resulted,  at 
least,  in  a  new  phrase.  It  may  be  that  this 
phrase  will  be  a  permanent  name  for  a 
hitherto  unmapped  region  of  our  inner  life. 
I  refer  to  the  phrase  ^^subconsciousness''^  or 
"  sublij7iinal  cojisciousnessT 

When  a  young  man,  in  the  olden  times, 
studied  theology  with  a  master  of  preaching, 
he  was  sure  to  find  out  that  his  master's 
power  with  human  beings,  either  for  their  in- 
struction in  righteousness  or  for  their  inspira- 
tion by  personal  association,  depended  largely 
upon  those  resources  of  the  personality  which 
lie    deeper    than    one's    self-consciousness. 


76  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

There  seems  to  be  a  stream  beneath  the 
stream  with  us  all.  Professor  James  has  not 
been  able  to  tell  us  how  "  some  of  the  strange 
powers  of  our  inner  life  can  be  tapped  and 
used  in  an  intellectual  sense."  But  no  one 
has  known  and  beheld  the  action  of  a  mind 
like  that  of  Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon  at 
work,  with  thousands  of  human  beings  under 
his  easy  leadership,  without  recognizing  in  his 
own  mind  a  certain  manifestation  from  be- 
neath the  level  of  his  conscious  intellectual 
activity — a  sort  of  bubbling  up,  intermittently 
perhaps,  but  certainly  ;  as  graciously  and  un- 
expectedly as  it  was  fresh  and  beautiful,  of 
something  personal,  which,  without  the  def- 
initely intellectual  operations  above,  would 
not  have  been  known.  Did  it  come  from 
the  depths,  as  a  vital  and  perhaps  thrilling 
appeal,  and  as  a  kind  of  reason  beneath  all 
other  more  apparent  reasons  for  believing  in 
nobleness  and  living  a  noble  life  ?  At  least 
it  seems  so.  It  was  so.  Forgotten  evi- 
dences lay  there,  like  ships  of  sunken  gold 
beneath  the  ordinary  and  more  fluent  evi- 
dence.    Truths  were  seen  as  they  stuck  up 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  77 

from  beneath,  as  Renan  tells  us  the  fabled 
spires  of  the  sunken  city  of  Is  were  said  to 
show  themselves,  when  the  storm  tossed  the 
same  sea  which  had  once  overwhelmed  them. 
Indeed,  Renan  thought  this  was  perhaps  a 
parable  of  his  own  soul. 

Now,  it  is  certain  that  this  elder  spiritual 
life,  this  deposit  beneath  our  more  apparent 
and  superficial  life  to-day,  contains  many  of 
our  best  powers,  and  sustains  many  of  our 
best  hopes.  There  are  two  problems,  then,  for 
us  to  solve,  or,  rather,  two  privileges  for  us  to 
use  with  our  latent  abilities.  Indeed,  if  we 
are  to  grow  power,  there  are  two  necessities  ; 
and  more  surely,  if  we  are  to  attain  the 
maximum  of  power,  (i)  We  must  use  this 
deposit,  by  and  through  a  spiritual  life  so 
down-reaching  that  our  treasure  shall  be 
brought  forth.  (2)  We  must  add  to  this  de- 
posit, by  and  through  such  a  spiritual  life  as 
will  yield  us  treasures  which,  to  be  possessed 
at  all,  must  be  in  the  deeps  and  out  of  sight. 

Before  we  touch  these  seriously,  let  us 
rightly  estimate  the  point  of  view  from  which 
the  minister  of  the  Christian  religion  must 


78  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

survey  these  facts.  Two  men  so  different  as 
Moses  and  Samson  have  been  studied  by  two 
of  your  lecturers — Dr.  WiUiam  M.  Taylor 
and  Dr.  Phillips  Brooks — as  furnishing  illus- 
trations of  the  presence  of  a  great  element 
of  unconsciousness  in  character.  The  texts 
were :  "  And  Moses  wist  not  that  the  skin  of  his 
face  did  shine."  "  And  Samson  wist  not  that 
his  strength  had  departed  from  him."  It 
would  be  wise  for  you  to  read  the  sermon  of 
Dr.  Taylor  and  then  the  sermon  of  Bishop 
Phillips  Brooks,  on  Moses.  However,  it  is 
my  duty  to  tell  you  that  there  were  two  ser- 
mons by  Dr.  Brooks,  and  that  the  second  ser- 
mon, of  the  man  who  became  a  true  bishop, 
in  Phillips  Brooks — a  sermon  which  was 
never  published  and  which  was  preached 
without  notes — went  far  more  deeply  inlo  the 
meaning  of  our  unconscious  life.  The  minis- 
ter's own  subconscious  self  so  contributed 
to  his  portraiture  of  Moses,  that  the  late  Prof. 
William  James  told  me,  as  we  listened  to- 
gether to  the  preacher:  "  Here  is  the  sight  of 
the  subconscious  yielding  up  its  wealth  in  the 
light   of   genius."     Neither  of   these  men — 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  79 

rtotably  Brooks  who  is  more  richly  original — 
could  have  made  either  of  these  sermons,  if 
he  had  not  experienced  the  truth  of  his  mes- 
sage. The  power  of  that  of  which  no  man 
may  be  conscious  was  eloquence  itself. 
Neither  of  them  could  have  spoken  so  wisely 
or  well,  if  he  had  pulled  his  experience  up  by 
the  roots  and  shown  them  to  the  people. 
The  blossom  and  fruit  were  excellent,  because 
the  roots  were  hidden.  I  shall  not  stop  to 
point  out  the  differences  between  unconscious- 
ness and  subconsciousness,  but  it  would  be  a 
very  grave  error  for  any  one  of  you  to  neglect 
enriching  this  deeper  life. 

Character  is  so  much  the  deposit  of  expe- 
rience that  we  are  likely  to  get  the  best  out 
of  our  experiences  in  a  substratum  of  per- 
sonal tradition.  Permanent  and  favourable 
dispositions  towards  those  truths  which  we 
never  any  more  seek  to  question  or  argue 
about,  than  about  our  experience  with  life, 
are  most  valuable  assets.  They  are  the  re- 
serve capital  of  the  soul.  Wonderful  reserve 
is  this,  when  many  years  of  accumulated 
treasures  in  thought  and  tendency  of  mind, 


8o  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

now  grown  habitual,  are  added  as  they  sink, 
by  gravity  of  their  value  and  weight  of  in- 
fluence, to  depths  within  us, — treasures  upon 
which  we  may  call,  or  which  shall  be  revealed 
when  the  winds  lift  the  seas  of  consciousness 
to  unwonted  heights  and  bare  the  bed  of 
rock  and  sand  below. 

I  once  heard  Bishop  Simpson  touch  upon 
an  experience  of  years,  which  he  afterwards 
related  as  a  student  of  psychology — for  he 
was  a  teacher  before  he  was  a  preacher,  and 
always  studied  the  phenomena  of  preaching 
and  its  results  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
teacher  which  he  continued  to  be,  in  spite  of 
his  eloquence.  I  had  seen,  as  he  had,  his 
whole  great  audience  electrified  in  an  instant, 
at  the  appearance  of  something  which  he 
seemed,  not  at  all  at  the  beginning,  or  even 
in  the  midst  of  his  discourse,  to  be  preaching 
or  even  thinking  about.  He  had  superior 
powers  of  wooing  from  the  crypts  of  his  mem- 
ory personal  figures  who  walked  forth  as  if, 
on  some  fresh  resurrection  morning,  they  had 
escaped  death.  But  this  was  not  a  memory. 
I  can  feel  and  hear  the  sentence,  though  I 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  8 1 

cannot  quote  it.  It  was  a  reason  for  a  reason, 
urged  in  behalf  of  the  supremacy  of  our  moral 
intuitions.  It  was  indeed  a  stormy  moment 
in  the  history  of  the  man,  for  he  was  grappled 
by  and  was  grappling  with  tremendous  cur- 
rents of  thought  and  feeling.  He  was  very 
far  from  being  eminently  the  thin  and  so 
soft-voiced  prelate  who  once  read  lectures 
which  I  heard  here,  and  which  were  created 
in  an  atmosphere  as  different  from  the  atmos- 
phere of  this  sermon,  as  the  atmosphere  of 
the  architect  of  a  life-saving  ship  is  different 
from  that  of  the  master  of  the  crew  in  a  crisis 
of  the  tempest  off  Gay's  Head.  The  lift  and 
altitude  of  his  conscious  activities ;  the  quick, 
splendid  realization  of  the  currents  which 
flowed  within  sight  of  every  one  so  grandly, 
were  as  nothing,  in  comparison  with  the  mes- 
sage from  underneath.  It  seemed  a  voice 
from  out  of  the  eternity  of  the  man's  ageless 
spiritual  life.  He  was  advancing  upon  his 
subliminal  self — speaking  out  of  his  subcon- 
scious life. 

All  who  would  be  ministers  must  respect, 
revere,  and  obey  not  only  the  Spirit  testifying 


82  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

with  our  spirit  from  beneath,  but  also,  and 
perhaps  chiefly,  the  Spirit  testifying  with  our 
spirit  from  above.  Then  deep  shall  indeed 
call  and  answer  unto  deep.  "  The  wind  blow- 
eth  where  it  listeth."  We  must  submit  to 
being  passive  and  receptive  to  that  which  is 
both  below  and  above  our  deliberative  ac- 
counting of  what  comes  to  us.  The  doctrine 
of  conversion  by  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  been  neglected  in  our  theology  : 
and  the  fact  of  conversion  has  too  often  been 
lost  sight  of,  as  not  only  the  possibility  but  a 
necessary  reality  in  the  Spiritual  Life  by  which 
any  man  attains  his  full  self  and  efficiency. 
So,  also,  the  finer  experiences  of  empower- 
ment for  ministering  to  men, — the  experiences 
which  come  from  the  deeper  currents  that 
are  subliminal,  or  the  higher  currents  which 
are  supra-liminal — to  use  the  modern  phrases 
— and  are  indubitable  facts  of  unconsciousness 
which  have  been  missed  by  our  logic,  have 
been  treated  as  meaningless  for  their  remote- 
ness. Our  ministry  has  thus  been  left  with- 
out its  greatest  authentic  and  commanding 
power.     Emerson's  word  as  to  the  supreme 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  83 

thoughts  which  are  always  spoken  in  us,  and 
Goethe's  word  to  the  same  effect  need  to  be 
repeated  again  and  again  to  us  who  fail, 
because  we  are  ever  looking  outside  our  own 
personal  experience  for  everything  in  the  na- 
ture of  revelation  of  truth.  Many  are  the  in- 
timations from  within  and  beneath  and  above. 
A  fine  and  true  spiritual  life  will  foster  them. 
Let  us  stand  against  everything,  to  conserve 
and  employ  that  certain  state  of  mind  in 
which  things  may  happen  which  we  have  not 
calculated  upon„  The  uncalculable  winds  of 
the  Spirit  are  the  best  to  calculate  upon,  even 
for  a  valuable  sermon — that  is,  a  sermon  out 
of  life,  which  is  not  less  safe  because  it  is  four- 
square and  open  to  all  the  winds  that  blow. 
Indeed,  it  would  be  less  safe,  if  it  were  open 
to  but  one.  Certainly,  it  is  a  meaningless 
thing  in  a  meaningless  universe,  if  it  be  open 
to  none  of  these  winds.  Trust  your  unnamed 
inspirations. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  minstrel  and  the  min- 
ister, and  they  are  allied.  This  alliance  is 
manifested  in  the  fact  that  the  subconscious 
self  congenitally  gives  no  record  of  itself  and 


84  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

furnishes  no  statistics.  The  true  man  is  un- 
consciously isolated,  but  he  is  nevertheless 
the  man  who  is  closest  to  humanity.  No  one 
is  nearer  to  humanity,  and  more  sensitive  to 
the  things  of  humanity,  than  he  who  has  this 
personal  and  great  reserve,  not  undignifiedly 
guarded,  but  kept  as  a  "  Holy  of  Holies." 

The  subconscious  man  beneath  the  con- 
scious man,  now  and  then,  bursts  forth ;  for 
the  real  man  will  always  ruin  a  finite  equation 
of  himself,  and  especially  if  he  says  some- 
thing authentic.  This  is  eloquence  of  the 
highest  order ;  it  is  never  mere  oratory. 
This  is  poetry  of  the  highest  order ;  it  is 
never  mere  verse.  Trust  the  unconscious 
reality  within  you.  So,  and  only  so,  may 
you  have  your  highest  personality  as  a  min- 
ister. A  minister  may  well  desire  to  become 
an  orator  of  the  soul  and  God,  and  a  minstrel 
of  both.  Take  George  Wm.  Curtis'  account 
of  the  orator.  Note  how  unconsciousness  in 
the  orator  produces  an  effect  which  is  re- 
ceived unconsciously  by  the  audience.  He 
says: 

"  Unconsciously   and    surely   the    ear   and 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  85 

heart  were  charmed.  How  was  it  done? 
Ah !  how  did  Mozart  do  it,  how  Raphael  ? 
The  secret  of  the  rose's  sweetness,  of  the 
bird's  ecstasy,  of  the  sunset's  glory — that  is 
the  secret  of  genius  and  eloquence.  What 
was  heard,  what  was  seen,  was  the  form  of 
noble  manhood,  the  courteous  and  self-pos- 
sessed tone,  the  flow  of  modulated  speech, 
sparkling  with  matchless  richness  of  illustra- 
tion, with  apt  allusion  and  happy  anecdote 
and  historic  parallel,  with  wit  and  pitiless  in- 
vective, with  melodious  pathos,  with  stinging 
satire,  with  crackling  epigram  and  limpid 
humour,  like  the  bright  ripples  that  play 
around  the  sure  and  steady  prow  of  the  re- 
sisdess  ship.  Like  an  illuminated  vase  of 
odours,  he  glowed  with  concentrated  and 
perfumed  fire.  The  divine  energy  of  his 
conviction  utterly  possessed  him  and  his 

"  *  pure  and  eloquent  blood 
Spoke  in  his  cheek,  and  so  distinctly  wrought 
That  one  might  almost  say  his  body  thought.' 

Was  it  Pericles  swaying  the  Athenian  multi- 
tude? Was  it  Apollo  breathing  the  music  of 
the  morning  from  his  lips?     It  was  an  Ameri- 


86  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

can  patriot,  a  modern  Son  of  Liberty,  with  a 
soul  as  firm  and  true  as  was  ever  consecrated 
to  unselfish  duty,  pleading  with  the  Ameri- 
can conscience  for  the  chained  and  speech- 
less victims  of  American  inhumanity."  How 
much  of  the  unconscious  is  in  it  all ! 

Why  should  the  minister's  effectiveness,  at 
any  time,  be  less  than  this — all  things  being 
equal  ? 

And  now  William  Watson  is  speaking, 
with  wondrous  similarity  of  phrase,  and  to 
the  same  effect,  of  the  minstrel,  Tennyson, 
who  was  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  ministers 
of  God  to  humanity  : 

•'  Who  shall  expound  the  mystery  of  the  lyre? 
In  far  retreats  of  elemental  mind 
Obscurely  comes  and  goes 

The  imperative  breath  of  song,  that  as  the  wind 
Is  trackless,  and  oblivious  whence  it  blows. 
Demand  of  lilies  wherefore  they  are  white, 
Extort  her  crimson  secret  from  the  rose, 
But  ask  not  of  the  Muse  that  she  disclose 
The  meaning  of  the  riddle  of  her  might : 
Somewhat  of  all  things  sealed  and  recondite, 
Save  the  enigma  of  herself,  she  knows. 
The  master  could  not  tell,  with  all  his  lore. 
Wherefore  he  sang,  or  whence  the  mandate  sped." 

Live  for  such  moments,  and  they  will  multi> 
ply.     They  are  full  of  the  breath  of  immor- 


AND   NEW  VIEW-POINTS  87 

tality  for  men,  when  the  minstrel  is  a  minis- 
ter or  the  minister  is  a  minstrel.  The  great 
creations  of  men  are  born  in  unconscious- 
ness. Personality  seems  to  fade,  yet  person- 
ality was  never  fc  Irue  and  real.  We  gain 
our  noblest  self,  as  Galahad,  by  sublime  self- 
loss  in  the  universal. 

I  must  close  with  James  Martineau's 
words,  and  thus  you  shall  have  all  I  would 
wish  I  myself  could  say,  of  the  open  secret 
of  your  possible  power :  "  In  virtue  of  the 
close  affinity,  perhaps  ultimate  identity,  of 
religion  and  poetry,  preaching  is  essentially 
a  lyric  expression  of  the  soul,  an  utterance  of 
meditation  in  sorrow,  hope,  love,  and  joy, 
from  a  representative  of  the  human  heart  in 
its  divine  relations.  In  proportion  as  we 
quit  this  view,  and  prominently  introduce 
the  idea  of  a  perceptive  and  monitory  func- 
tion, we  retreat  from  the  true  prophetic 
interpretation  of  the  office  back  into  the  old 
sacerdotal: — or  (what  is  not  perhaps  so  dif- 
ferent a  distinction  as  it  may  appear)  from 
the  properly  religions  to  the  simply  moral. 
A  ministry  of  mere  instruction  and  persua- 


88  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

sion,  which  addresses  itself  primarily  to  the 
understanding  and  the  will,  which  deals 
mainly  with  facts  and  reasoning,  with  hopes 
and  fears,  may  furnish  us  with  the  exposi- 
tions of  the  lecture-room,  the  commandments 
of  the  altar,  the  casuistry  of  the  confessional : 
but  it  falls  short  of  that  true  '  testimony  of 
God,'  that  personal  effusion  of  conscience 
and  affection,  which  distinguishes  the  re- 
iormed  preaching-  from  the  homily T 

All  I  wish  to  say  ?  Nay :  not  all.  For  I 
would  so  speak  in  the  lectures  to  come  in 
this  course,  that  you  shall  see  that  we  must 
not  believe  in  any  antagonism  of  interests  as 
between  the  seer  and  the  priest.  We  must 
see  that  the  teacher  in  the  pulpit  and  the 
preacher  may  and  ought  to  be  one.  This 
will  come  to  be  so,  only  by  an  all-reconciling 
Spiritual  Life. 


LECTURE  III 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 
AND  ITS  RELATION  TO 
TRUTH  AND  ORTHODOXY 


LECTURE  III 

THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE  AND   ITS 

RELATION  TO  TRUTH  AND 

ORTHODOXY 

ORTHODOXY,  like  happiness,  is  a 
by-product.  It  is  not  less  valuable 
in  itself,  even  as  many  a  very  rich 
and  serviceable  result  obtained  incidentally 
in  and  through  our  more  insistent  and  com- 
prehensive plans  is  not  less  valuable  because 
it  is  arrived  at  without  planfulness.  Our 
plow  is  more  apt  to  turn  up  something  else 
of  importance — some  unexpected  wealth — 
if  we  are  after  the  essential  thing  in  plowing, 
and  so  set  upon  a  harvest  by  and  by  that  we 
shall  see  that  it  goes  in  up  to  the  beam. 
The  main  purpose  seriously  undertaken,  and 
valorously  stuck  to,  is  the  parent  of  the 
finest  form  of  the  incidental  in  all  our  life. 
Indeed  happiness,  without  such  a  fatherhood 
as  a  life  set  upon  holiness  gives  to  it,  is  a 
poor  bastard,  always  homeless  and  a  little 
91 


92  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

ragged.  What  a  poor,  aimless,  drudging, 
and  gloomy  thing  is  the  happiness  which 
has  been  conceived  and  born  without  Holi- 
ness and  Self-sacrifice  as  its  father  and 
mother.  It  usually  dies  teething.  If  it 
lives,  it  is  scrawny,  gets  ill-tempered,  re- 
quires to  be  petted  and  has  the  self-con- 
sciousness of  a  poor  egotism.  Start  out  in 
any  manner  to  be  happy  ;  let  that  be  the 
main  thing,  and  you  will  soon  see  how 
miserable  you  can  be  and  how  the  birthmark 
of  selfishness  develops  into  a  sore. 

On  the  other  hand,  determine,  under  the 
compulsion  of  a  vision  of  God's  holiness,  to 
follow  after  holiness ;  hear  and  obey  the 
command :  "  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy," 
and  put  out  of  head  and  heart  any  vision 
of  God  Himself  which  could  make  Him  say 
to  you  :  "  Be  happy,  for  I  am  happy  " — fol- 
low after  God's  deeper  joy  until  He  leads 
you  to  His  Calvary ;  behold  Jesus,  your 
Christ  and  His  Christ  "  for  the  joy  that 
was  set  before  Him,"  "enduring  the  cross, 
despising  the  shame"  and  now  "set  upon 
the  throne  of  God,"  where  His  eternal  joy  is 


ITS   RELATION   TO  TRUTH  93 

that  of  redeeming  us  to  holiness,  and  you 
cannot  fail  to  find  the  by-product  of  happi- 
ness gleaming  forth  like  an  upturned  stream 
of  gold,  in  the  track  of  the  deeply  set  plow- 
share of  your  purpose  to  be  holy. 

All  that  I  have  said  of  happiness  is  true  of 
orthodoxy.  It  is  just  such  a  by-product. 
There  is  only  one  main  thing  for  us,  as  the 
intellectual  result  of  religious  activity  within 
and  without  ourselves,  and  that  is  Truth. 
It  is  essential ;  all  orthodoxy,  as  we  have 
become  accustomed  to  the  term — and  in  that 
sense  only  may  I  use  it  here — is  incidental. 
The  best  orthodoxy — here  our  use  of  the 
word  is  thus  shown  to  be  so  unscientific  that 
comparison  is  possible  and  even  useful — our 
best  orthodoxy  is  the  clearest  and  most 
sympathetic  statement  of  what  men  accept 
as  the  truth.  It  may,  or  may  not,  be  the 
truth.  Perhaps  only  the  majority,  not  the 
best  of  our  fellows  intellectually  or  morally, 
would  accept  the  statement  as  such.  But  it 
goes  as  orthodoxy.  Perhaps  the  conserva- 
tism of  an  age  or  community  or  institution 
like  the  Church,  which  always  cares  much 


94  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

for  the  inheritance,  and  ought  to,  until  it  is 
found  to  be  an  inheritance,  not  of  spirit  but 
of  traditions  and  property,  is  the  chief 
proprietor  of  what  is  known  as  the  truest 
statement  of  any  series  of  realities  called 
Truth. 

These  interests  voice  themselves  in  the 
accepted  statement,  as  the  constituted  au- 
thorities on  the  subject.  All  thoughts  which 
Truth  may  touch  or  inspire  in  the  mind 
are  under  their  special  purview.  Naturally, 
great  deference,  if  not  reverence,  is  attached 
to  their  very  pronunciation  of  the  statement. 
Orthodoxy  is,  under  such  circumstances,  al- 
most at  a  premium.  To  be  orthodox  is 
much  more  than  to  be  reasonable,  of  course. 
And  soon,  when  the  growing  vision  of  truth, 
— as  it  ever  must  do,  in  order  to  grow ;  and 
it  must  grow  in  man's  mind,  in  order  to  live 
at  all, — does  push  up  and  around  with  its 
perennial  vitality,  and  noiselessly  creates  a 
change  which  no  reasoning  in  contentious 
speech  ever  can  do,  then  to  be  orthodox  is 
more  than  to  be  true. 

Now,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this  matter 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  95 

of  orthodoxy  is  of  slight  importance.  It  is  of 
great  importance  that  the  world  of  men 
should  accept  and  regard  certain  truths  as 
fixed.  It  is  our  duty,  as  leaders  of  public 
opinion,  to  treat  with  reverence  the  bases 
upon  which  all  right  opinion  must  rest  and 
build  its  edifices  of  conviction.  But  we  need 
to  know  that  these  bases  are  very  simple  and 
not  multitudinous.  The  mind  of  a  large 
number  of  human  beings  is  both  limp  and 
lazy.  It  looks  to  orthodoxy  in  science,  soci- 
ology, medicine,  and  politics,  as  it  looks  to 
orthodoxy  in  religious  thought,  regarding  it 
as  something  to  rest  upon,  just  because  it 
lacks  vitality  and  strength  to  think.  A  kind 
of  indolence  of  the  intellect  makes  many 
otherwise  amiable  persons  very  favourable 
towards  any  fixed  statement  of  things  con- 
nected with  the  mysteries  of  life  and  the 
universe.  We  will  always  have  with  us 
persons  to  whom  it  will  be  impossible  to 
make  explanation  that  royal  thinking  is  a 
duty  of  every  one  of  the  Royal  Priesthood  of 
God.  It  is  true  also  that  persons  of  this  sort 
need  only  the  simplicities,  which  are  indeed 


96  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

the  sublimities  of  truth,  and  these  are  not 
numerous  enough  to  confuse  the  mind.  All 
great  preaching  accepts  them  ;  all  fine  char- 
acter is  built  upon  them.  It  is  our  duty  and 
privilege  to  make  these  foundations — if  I  am 
still  to  use  this  figure  of  speech — visible,  and 
as  glorious  as  they  are  eternal. 

But  one  of  the  main  matters  to  be  made 
clear  is  that  this  figure  of  speech  is  in- 
sufficient. The  hardest  orthodoxy,  having 
enough  truth  in  it  to  effectually  serve  man's 
life,  is  not  stone  for  foundations,  so  much  as 
soil  for  growth.  We  are  concerned  with  the 
Spiritual  Life.  The  moment  you  mention 
life,  you  have  agreed  to  growth.  No  ortho- 
doxy will  remain  even  interesting,  or  main- 
tain its  name  long,  which  cannot  be  sown 
with  seeds.  It  must  yield  not  only  a  crop 
in  return,  but  also  it  must  give  back  to  the 
soil  an  increment,  which,  like  leaf-mold,  shall 
make  it  perennially  productive.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  besetting  of  our  mental  sins — the 
condoning  of  intellectual  indolence,  by  our 
treating  truths  as  a  tired  statistician  might. 
He  is  always  relieved  to  find  no  change  in 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  97 

the  arid  blocks  of  stone.  Numerical  identity 
is  sepulchral,  when  truths  arranged  in  a 
statement  for  popular  acceptance  are  called 
orthodox.  They  never  are  so  untrue,  as  when 
they  furnish  no  nutriment  of  growth  to  man's 
life.  Nothing  is  more  valuable  than  to  break 
them  up,  or  to  treat  them  as  the  waters  from 
the  heavens  by  slow  erosion  create  deep,  rich 
valleys  out  of  forbiddingly  barren  mountains 
which  they  wear  away. 

We  were  speaking  yesterday  of  the  supreme 
place  of  personality.  Here  it  will  be  seen 
again  that  the  element  of  personality  is 
decisive,  in  the  interests  of  what  is  valuable, 
in  both  orthodoxy  and  truth.  It  is  when 
you  touch  a  series  of  doctrines  or  statements 
called  orthodoxy,  with  a  personal  purpose  to 
make  your  own  life  what  it  ought  to  be  by 
their  help,  or  to  recreate  the  life  of  some  one 
else,  either  in  the  love  of  the  man  himself  or 
in  the  love  of  the  truth  itself,  that  these  state- 
ments and  doctrines  become  true.  That  is, 
assuming  that  our  orthodoxy  is  what  the 
word  implies,  right  doctrine.  If  it  is  not 
right  doctrine,  the  Spiritual  Life  of  a  human 


98  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

being  will  be  fatal  to  it.  Once  let  the  fire  of 
a  fine  spirituality  searchingly  play  upon 
ancient  and  dry  falsities  which  have  been 
accepted  as  true,  and  have  been  named 
orthodox  for  so  long  a  time  that  they  are  like 
inflammable  tinder,  and  the  flame  will  grow 
while  the  revered  formula  will  feed  it.  It  is, 
indeed,  the  only  safety  in  the  presence  of  our 
human  willingness  to  label  statements  and 
doctrines  with  such  laborious  propriety,  that 
they  may  be  quoted  in  order  to  relieve  us  of 
thinking  on  imperial  things.  This  affair  of 
personality  coming  into  contact  with  what  we 
call  orthodoxy  delivers  us  at  once  from  any 
confusion  of  mind.  Orthodoxy  must  pass 
into  truth  and  be  our  truth,  the  very  food  for 
our  life,  or  the  usable  every-day  instrumental- 
ity and  tool,  for  accomplishing  our  personal 
holiness,  else  it  must  vanish. 

I  have  preferred  to  speak  of  the  value  of 
orthodoxy,  when  it  is  a  soil  for  the  production 
of  fresh  shoots  of  truth,  which,  having  brought 
forth  their  fruit,  in  turn  enrich  the  soil.  Such 
orthodoxy  as  this,  thoroughly  worked,  as  we 
say  of  the  field,  by  spiritual  interests  which 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  99 

look  towards  the  future,  never  burned  a  her- 
etic. It  needs  no  poHce  defense.  It  scarcely 
permits  the  irreverence  of  a  recommendation. 
One  would  as  soon  insist,  through  a  council 
of  prelates,  on  the  right  of  a  growing  field  of 
corn  to  be  respected.  Nothing  but  the 
Spiritual  Life,  constantly  working  with  what 
we  call  the  fundamentals — that  is,  the  very 
soil  which  is  beneath — nourishes  the  growing 
future  and  can  protect  orthodoxy. 

One  of  the  most  unfortunate  heresies  con- 
cerning truth  and  orthodoxy  is  the  implica- 
tion, so  very  often  made,  that  religious  truth, 
or  truths  concerning  religion,  need  a  mechan- 
ically devised  protectorate.  This  is  the  other 
side  of  the  falsehood  which  never  dares 
to  speak  itself,  but  is  constantly  vitiating  the 
atmosphere  of  many  a  minister's  study,  that 
these  truths  within  the  purview  of  the  minis- 
ter's thought  and  life  are  of  such  a  sort  that 
they  must  be  approached  in  manner  reflect- 
ing their  peculiarities.  An  age  like  our  own 
revolts  at  the  idea  that  any  truth  requires 
anything  but  a  true  and  revealing  use  of  it,  to 
keep  it  safe  ;  and  any  whimsicalness  of  treat- 


lOO  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

ing  religious  truths,  as  if  they  belong  only  to 
certain  classes  of  human  beings  who  approach 
them  with  certain  attitudes,  is  distressing  to 
the  intellectual  integrity  of  the  modern  mind. 
An  ancient  fact  shows  up  with  a  striking 
modernity,  whenever  its  eternity,  like  flint, 
yields  fire  as  it  comes  in  contact  with  a  real- 
ity hard  as  steel.  The  crisis  thus  made  works 
in  the  interest  of  manifested  truthfulness. 
The  ancient  fact  is,  that  truth  is  for  the  mind 
of  man  and  the  mind  of  man  is  for  truth.  For 
other  reasons  than  that  it  is  old,  this  is  a  con- 
sideration which  is  not  likely  to  have  much 
weight  with  persons  who  do  not  gladly  con- 
fess that  the  ministry  of  Christ,  man  to  man, 
is  at  length  on  its  merits.  It  is  an  unnatural 
and,  therefore,  unscientific  view  of  the  realities 
involved  which  permits  any  of  us  to  treat  the 
truth,  as  to  any  subject,  as  something  either 
ultimately  to  fail  to  reach  the  human  mind,  or 
requiring  an  extra-natural,  especially  anti- 
natural,  therefore  abnormal,  exercise  of  the 
human  faculty,  to  attain  and  entertain  it.  Of 
course,  the  normal  exercise  of  human  faculties 
for   truth-finding   involves    truthful  personal 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  lOI 

character — truth-loving  by  the  bent  and 
tendencies  of  one's  inner  self.  The  pulpit's 
urgency  of  some  adventitious  attitude  towards 
truth — this  thing  of  character  being  true  in  a 
man,  to  begin  with — has  been  most  unsettling 
to  mental  orderliness.  Any  mysteriously 
created  manner  of  mind  which  makes  the 
thinker  a  lonely  citizen  of  what  is  more  iso- 
lating and  demoralizing  to  his  open-eyed  hu- 
manity than  any  charmed  or  sacred  "  circle," 
is  vicious  in  the  extreme.  To  adopt  another, 
than  the  normal  method  of  seeking  Truth,  is 
to  undo  the  things  with  which  you  work.  It 
is  to  destroy  man's  confidence  in  Truth's 
every-day  approachableness  and  its  familiar 
power  in  his  life,  and  his  own  ability  to  attain 
it  as  an  end  consonant  with  truthful  charac- 
ter. If  Truth  is  such  an  essential  thing,  in 
order  to  make  the  highest  product  in  man,  it 
must  be  that  our  essentially  high  faculties 
shall  get  at  it  in  such  a  manner  as  will  give 
unity  and  poise  to  human  nature.  Our  facul- 
ties for  truth-getting  everywhere  else  ought 
to  work  most  naturally,  when  we  are  seeking 
the  highest  truth.     If,  in  what  we  may  call  the 


I02  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

regular  and  normal  way,  which  any  sound 
mind  may  adopt  in  finding  truth,  searching 
is  ill-directed,  and  truth-finding  for  all  true 
souls  is  hopeless,  then  the  Christian  minister 
may  well  be  dispensed  with.  He  ought  never 
to  say,  with  the  mighty  preachers  to  men — 
least  of  all,  with  God  Himself — "  Come,  let 
us  reason  together." 

We  cannot  be  too  personal  about  this  mat- 
ter of  our  truthfulness,  especially  if  we  have 
the  interests  of  Truth  upon  our  hearts.  All 
that  I  have  said  to  strengthen  confidence  in 
the  mind's  ability  to  get  at  the  truths  of  reli- 
gion will  be  misleading,  unless,  first  of  all, 
each  man's  personality  is  in  normal  relations 
to  Reason  and  to  Truth.  This  is  a  graver 
charge  against  what  I  have  been  saying,  than 
the  charge  that  it  alone  is  unqualified  ration- 
alism. Is  it  a  fact  in  your  life  that  Truth  has 
no  supreme  place  ?  You  can  never  know  it 
so  certainly,  as  when  you  are  trying  to  obtain 
what  is  new  truth  for  you.  The  fact  of  our 
having  done  wrong,  "  missed  the  mark," 
sinned,  has  already  wrenched  the  mental  ma- 
chinery.    Our   doing   wrong,    "  missing  the 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  I03 

mark,"  sinning,  is  even  now  placing  gritty 
sand  in  the  finely  organized  intellectual  mech- 
anism and  process.  Not  only  are  we  self- 
wronged,  but  certain  hard  prejudices  favour- 
able to  a  condition  of  wrongness  have  gotten 
into  our  thinking  and  feeling  and  willing. 
They  have  been  blown  in,  or  dropped  in, 
because  of  our  acting  against  rightness.  The 
effect  upon  us  is  seen  to  be  conterminous  and 
contemporaneous  with  a  sorry  effect  upon  that 
body  of  reality  called  Truth,  so  far  as  it  may 
be  ours.  We  may  cling  in  soundness  of  state- 
ment to  any  old  and  revered  orthodoxy,  ours 
or  another's,  but  our  loss  of  Truth  and  truth- 
fulness, and,  fundamentally,  our  loss  of  truth- 
loving  is  damaging  if  not  desolating.  Some- 
thing then  must  be  done  for  us,  in  us,  by 
something  more  true  than  we  are.  That 
something,  coming  to  the  redemption  of  the 
human  personality,  must  be  Some  One. 

Here  is  the  beginning,  then,  of  a  new  spirit- 
ual life.  The  Holy  Spirit  has  operated  upon 
our  heart  and  mind,  driving  us  by  the  neces- 
sities of  our  place  and  position  with  regard  to 
truth    to   Him  who  is  Truth.     Whenever  a 


I04  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

soul  has  found  this  necessity  for  being  true, 
and,  along  with  it,  a  necessity  that  Some  One 
shall  personally  regenerate  his  heart,  so  that 
his  character  shall  be  a  true  character  and 
thus  open  to  truth,  there  is  no  voice  of  heaven 
sweeter  or  more  powerful  than  that  of  Jesus 
saying:  '*/  am  the  Truths  Do  not  fear  for 
a  moment  that  truth  can  be  lost  to  you, 
whenever  He  Who  is  the  Truth  has  made 
you  true.  Be  sure,  however,  that  the  fortune 
and  fate  of  truth,  as  well  as  of  orthodoxy,  are 
betrayed  hopelessly,  when  your  character  and 
life  have  no  personal  relationship  to  Him 
Who  is  the  Truth. 

Now  this  experience  goes  far  deeper  into 
the  personality  than  the  realm  of  the  brain. 
It  is  measurelessly  more  than  an  intellectual 
event.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Truth  whose 
blessing  comes  to  us  by  and  through  love. 
He  is  the  Truth  Whom  we  keep  by  obeying 
Him  in  the  will.  He  loves  you  in  order  that 
you  may  love  Him  ;  and  so  the  outcome  of  it 
is  that  the  will  and  the  emotions,  as  well  as 
the  intellect,  are  made  true.  A  famous 
phrase  of  an  illustrious  man,  "  the  will  to  be- 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  105 

lieve,"  has  deeply  instructed  our  time,  as  he 
has  taught  its  meaning.  There  is  no  such 
teaching  as  this  experience  with  Christ  will 
give,  as  to  the  will  to  be  true.  Then  Jesus 
Christ  takes  the  whole  soul  captive,  His  per- 
sonality bringing  a  regeneration  into  your 
personality  and  mine. 

So  much  for  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
through  a  change  which  may  be  well  called 
both  co7iviction  on  account  of  sin  and  co7iver- 
sion  from  sin.  Untruthfulness  is  sin.  The 
Holy  Spirit  was  promised  by  our  Saviour  to 
His  disciples  as  the  guarantor  and  protector 
of  truth,  through  His  influence  upon  us  in 
spiritualizing  our  whole  life.  Said  the 
Master  :  "  I  will  give  you  another  Comforter, 
even  the  Spirit  of  Truth."  Our  Master  said 
more — even  this  He  said  :  "  Howbeit,  when 
He,  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  is  come.  He  shall 
guide  you  into  all  truth,  for  He  shall  not 
speak  from  Himself,  but  whatsoever  things 
He  shall  hear,  these  things  shall  He  speak. 
He  shall  declare  unto  you  the  things  that  are 
to  come.  He  shall  glorify  Me,  for  He  shall 
take  of  Mine  and  show  it  unto  you." 


Io6  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

We  must  realize  that  the  Holy  Spirit's 
work  in  the  Church  is  the  only  security 
of  orthodoxy.  When  we  think  of  what  has 
been  done  in  the  name  of  the  protection 
of  orthodoxy — the  crimes  against  body  and 
soul ;  the  flames  and  thumb-screws,  sur- 
passed in  their  malign  cruelty  only  by  the 
coerced  falsification  of  so  much  of  man's 
mental  life,  age  after  age,  and  when  we  be- 
hold what  the  plain  teaching  of  Jesus  is  with 
respect  to  the  future  safety  of  His  truth,  we 
are  astonished,  I  think,  at  the  twist  and  in- 
direction which  the  ecclesiastical  mind  has 
had,  whenever  it  has  neglected  the  spiritual 
life.  Orthodoxy  conceived  after  this  sort  of 
unspiritual  ancestry,  requiring  only  an  accept- 
ance of  dogmas,  has  been  the  most  serious 
foe  of  religion,  because  of  its  abandonment  of 
morality.  Let  each  of  us  be  warned.  The 
finest  of  us  is  always  in  danger  of  going  over 
to  this  very  tyranny,  unless  he  be  withheld  in 
the  grasp  of  Jesus  Christ's  personal  presence 
throughout  his  thought  and  life.  The  pres- 
ence of  Jesus  Christ  in  a  man,  and  this  only, 
will   keep   him  with   an   eye  so  fixed  upon 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  107 

goodness  and  love  and  the  Father's  plan 
and  hope  for  humanity  as  revealed  in  His 
Son,  that  love  and  goodness  will  be  the  only 
tests  demanded  for  Christian  fellowship.  At- 
tention cannot  too  often  be  called  to  the  fact 
that  many  otherwise  saintly  souls  have  over- 
estimated the  function  of  the  detective,  or  the 
policeman,  in  the  interest  of  order ;  and  that 
it  was  the  Beloved  Disciple  himself  who  asked 
his  Lord  to  forbid  one  who  was  casting  out 
devils,  but  not  in  the  Master's  name.  Here 
was  a  passion  for  orthodoxy  which  forgot 
the  truth.  Jesus'  answer  shows  that  the 
ecclesiastical  order  is  not  of  supreme  impor- 
tance, and  that  the  truth  of  the  Fatherhood 
of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  is  like 
goodness  and  love.  It  will  not  permit  a  con- 
stabulary to  restrain  its  going  forth  for  bless- 
ing. His  Master  said  to  John :  "  Forbid 
him  not ;  for  he  that  is  not  against  us  is  for 
us." 

There  are  certain  doctrines  which  can  never 
be  held  as  true,  in  the  mind,  unless  they  are 
lived  willingly  and  lovingly — that  is,  unless 
the  whole  nature,  a  man's  total  personality, 


I08  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

in  and  through  Hfe,  by  assimilation  and  all 
other  life  processes,  really  identifies  them  with 
the  process  of  his  attaining  selfhood.  The 
doctrine  of  God  is  perhaps  the  most  difficult 
to  lose  of  all  the  truths  which  men  sometimes 
do  lose.  It  is  doubtful  if  there  ever  was,  or  can 
be,  an  atheist,  pure  and  simple.  It  is  not 
doubtful  at  all  that  a  godless  life  will  extract 
the  celestial  attributes  from  the  vision  of  the 
divine,  one  after  another,  until  the  mind's 
once  loved  object,  supreme  above  all  others, 
has  faded  out  of  the  attention.  Especially  is 
this  true  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  Just  as 
the  only  way  God  could  use,  to  make  real  His 
Fatherhood,  in  the  mind  of  men,  is  through 
sonship,  and  through  such  a  sonship  as  re- 
vealed this  quality  of  His  nature,  so  man's 
only  way  to  realize  the  Fatherhood  of  God  in 
himself  is  by  such  a  sonship,  exercising  its 
functions  of  need  and  dependence  and  affec- 
tion and  adoration  in  such  a  way  as  to  liter- 
ally experience  God's  Fatherhood.  Do  not 
expect  to  remain  sound  in  the  faith  and  really 
believe,  for  any  length  of  time,  in  the  Father- 
hood of  God,  unless  your  sonship  is  such  a 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  I09 

vital  experience  in  the  direction  of  the  broth- 
ers and  other  sons  who  are  around  you,  that 
you  cannot  rest  until  all  men  are  under  the 
experienced  blessing  of  God's  Fatherhood. 
To  believe  in  God's  wisdom  and  truth,  His 
mercy  and  providence,  His  justice  and  love, 
is  not  a  feat  of  intellect,  or  a  matter  of  cogent 
persuasion ;  it  is  the  result  most  largely  of 
will  and  heart  and  head,  the  total  personality 
throwing  all  thought,  feehng,  volition,  the 
entire  self,  upon  Him.  Then  one  realizes  the 
validity  of  these  truths  of  Him. 

The  doctrijie  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments,  which  is  most  helpful  to 
your  spiritual  life  and  mine,  is  that  doctrine 
of  the  Bible,  its  nature  and  meaning,  which  is 
most  true.  We  will  never  know  that  any 
doctrine  is  true  by  the  decisions  of  councils, 
the  arguments  of  acute  intelligence,  or  the 
anathemas  of  priests.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
maintaining  confidence  in  the  infallibility  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  when  we  are 
living  so  fallibly  that  the  thought  of  infalli- 
bility with  regard  to  anything  is  foreign  to 
the  mind.     The  doctrine  of  the  inspiration  of 


no  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

the  Scriptures,  which  is  of  very  much  more 
importance  than  any  doctrine  of  infalHbility, 
is  such  a  conception  that  uninspired  living 
will  make  the  very  thought  of  it  impossible. 
Unless  the  experience  of  one's  battle  for 
purity  is  vivid  and  persistent,  he  will  not  long 
be  able  to  hear  the  heroic  note.  The  mind 
of  the  preacher  of  to-day  must  go  to  Rome 
with  Paul  and  make  the  history  of  Paul  as  in- 
dubitable as  autobiography  ;  and  only  as  he 
is  under  the  spell  of  that  holy  enthusiasm,  the 
spiritually  minded  man  is  not  bewildered,  still 
is  he  less  turned  aside,  when  saints,  apostles, 
and  his  Christ  live  chapters  in  the  history  of 
spiritual  power  such  as  must  ever  amaze  un- 
spiritual  men.  Pascal  says  :  **  It  is  the  lot  of 
Jesus'  disciple  to  have  those  things  happen  to 
him  which  happened  to  Jesus."  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  it  will  be  possible  for  the  Christian  min- 
istry to  credit  the  account  of  the  things  Jesus 
did,  until  we  are  able  to  make  good  our 
Lord's  great  words :  "  Greater  things  than 
these  shall  ye  do  because  I  go  to  the  Father." 
The  Spiritual  Life  alone  will  answer  to  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Bible  and  of  those  of  our  own 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  III 

humanity  whose  souls  were  made  incandescent 
by  the  divine  fire. 

So  also,  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  in 
Christ  will  always  be  a  confused  and  tragic 
appeal  to  the  mere  pulpiteer,  who  has  not  real- 
ized, and  is  not  realizing,  while  he  works  with 
and  for  men,  in  his  life  with  men,  what  Paul 
meant,  when  he  spoke  of  his  own  spiritual  life 
and  that  Gospel  "  whereof,"  as  he  says,  "  I, 
Paul,  am  made  a  minister  ;  who  now  rejoice  in 
my  sufferings  for  you  and  fill  up  that  which 
is  behind  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my 
flesh  for  His  body's  sake  which  is  the 
Church." 

Jesus  is  always  seeking  to  make  men  feel, 
if  they  will,  the  common  ground  upon  which 
He  stands  with  His  brethren,  while  He  deals 
with  the  problems  of  time  and  eternity.  He 
says :  "I  go  to  My  Father  and  your  Father, 
to  My  God  and  your  God."  He  prays,  as  the 
divine  promise  glows,  that  the  glory  God  has 
given  unto  Him  shall  be  given  unto  them. 
All  human  life,  at  all  worthy  of  the  divine  in- 
vestment in  us,  is  an  atonement.  The  vica- 
rious element   in  our  life  is  its  redemption. 


112  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

The  Calvary  which  gave  to  the  world  its 
unique  cross  and  the  divine  sacrifice  made  all 
our  crosses  sacred,  so  that  our  divine  Re- 
deemer Himself  said :  •*  Take  up  thy  cross 
and  follow  Me."  In  the  very  fact  that  Jesus 
has  taken  some  of  us  into  the  fellowship  of 
His  sufferings  and  disclosed  the  possibilities 
in  human  nature,  of  living  divinely  and  in 
sympathy  with  His  atonement — this  makes 
Him  solitary  in  His  grace  towards  us  as  He 
was  solitary  in  His  sufferings.  Yet  it  brings 
us  into  communion  with  Him,  at  the  highest 
places  of  the  divine  life.  It  will  be  yourself, 
if  your  ministry  shall  be  worthy  of  its  name, 
having  found  men  who  have  lost  their  faith  in 
the  vicarious  atonement,  who  may  lead  them 
back  to  the  spot  where  they  lost  it.  They  will 
find  it  just  where  they  lost  it  Always  some 
unwillingness  to  bear  the  burden  of  others ; 
always  some  slinking  and  revolt  from  the  crisis 
which  demanded  blood  of  self-sacrifice  ;  al- 
ways some  refusal  to  say  the  word  or  give  the 
blessing  which  leads  to  Golgotha,  marks  the 
moment  of  the  loss  of  faith  in  the  redemption 
of  the  w^orld  by  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  of 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  II3 

Nazareth.  For  a  minister  to  deeply  partake 
of  "  the  joy  which  was  set  before  Him  Who 
bore  the  cross,  despising  the  shame,"  that 
minister  must  not  dechne  his  own  cross  or 
fear  before  its  ignominy.  No  man  can  preach 
on  the  atonement  in  Christ  with  words  alone, 
however  mighty,  or  tender,  or  true.  The 
truth  or  untruth  of  the  minister  will  reveal 
itself  here.  The  grace  of  God  within  him 
will  alone  keep  his  mind  steadily  attentive 
to  a  truth  which  is  too  sublime  or  simple,  ex- 
cept for  the  humble  follower  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ 
is  more  than  ever  a  sacred  treasure  of  those 
who  know  its  truth,  by  having  trusted  and 
obeyed  it.  We  must  live  this  doctrine,  by 
drawing  upon  the  God-man.  Many  of  the 
arguments  used  in  the  pulpits  in  favour  of 
the  Divinity  of  Jesus — that  is,  His  likeness 
of  nature  unto  that  of  God — tend  to  prove 
nothing  with  regard  to  the  Christ's  moral 
quality.  When  Jesus,  "  knowing  that  He 
came  from  God  and  was  going  unto  God, 
and  that  the  Father  had  placed  all  things  in 
His  hands  " — "  took  a  towel  and  washed  His 


114  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

disciples'  feet,"  there  was  a  moral  proof  of 
His  likeness  unto  God.  But  the  fact  that 
the  prophecy  was  fulfilled,  or  that  He  existed 
before  His  coming  into  the  world,  or  that  He 
performed  many  miracles,  or  that  He  was 
born  of  a  virgin — these  all  could  not  prove 
or  do  not  tend  to  prove  His  likeness  unto 
God,  in  ethical  quality.  The  conscience  and 
spirituality  of  the  Christian  pulpit,  knowing 
through  experience  that  Jesus  saves  men 
from  a  life  of  sin  to  sonship  unto  the  Father, 
is  more  than  any  other  evidence,  historical 
or  otherwise,  towards  a  demonstration  that 
Jesus  is  to  be  adored  as  divine.  But  we  will 
never  be  on  moral  or  religious  grounds  with 
regard  to  the  proof  of  anything,  until  we  are 
living  on  those  grounds  and  know  Jesus 
Christ  ethically,  in  the  grandeur  and  richness 
of  the  Spiritual  Life.  If  you  have  never  put 
upon  the  shoulders  of  Jesus  Christ  a  weight 
for  Him  to  bear  for  you  greater  than  you  and 
all  other  men  together  may  bear,  you  have 
not  known  His  omnipotence.  It  is  amazing 
how  ministers  can  interest  themselves  in  the 
discussion  as  to  the  unique  place  of  Jesus  of 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  II5 

Nazareth  in  the  universe  of  God,  when  once 
giving  Him  our  load  of  disappointment  and 
failure,  of  sorrow  and  especially  of  sin,  we 
may  surely  know  the  weight  has  been  lifted 
and  we  are  borne  along  with  the  hopes  which 
no  human  being  can  inspire.  Beautiful  life 
indeed,  it  was,  that  sang  itself  into  measure- 
less remembrance  by  these  words  : 

"  If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man  — 
And  only  a  man — I  say 
That  of  all  mankind  I  will  cleave  to  Him, 
And  to  Him  will  I  cleave  alway. 

"  If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God  — 
And  the  only  God — I  swear 
I  will  follow  Him  through  heaven  and  hell, 
The  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  air  !  " 

No  soul  will  thus  follow  Him  long,  who  will 
fail  finally  to  adore. 

Following  Jesus — this  alone  will  save  even 
our  orthodoxy  from  being  a  heresy  against 
God  and  man. 

I  have  never  known  any  so-called  hetero- 
doxy, or  orthodoxy,  with  reference  to  Jesus 
Christ,  which  did  not  at  length  have  the 
marks  and  flavour  of  the  loftiest  truth  con- 
cerning Him,  if  that  so-called  heterodoxy  or 


Il6  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

orthodoxy  was  the  result,  as  it  ever  must  be, 
of  following  Him  into  those  ranges  of  being 
and  blessing  which  are  reached  only  in  the 
Spiritual  Life. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  doctrine  of  Inintor- 
tality.  If  the  minister  lives  within  the  com- 
pass of  a  year,  or  ten  years,  or  fifty  years, 
his  preaching  may  not  be  falsely  rhetorical, 
or  rhetorically  false,  but  that  will  be  its  only 
distinction,  when  he  ventures  to  speak  of  the 
life  eternal.  There  is  no  topic  that  hangs 
over  the  pulpit  so  Hke  a  day  of  judgment  and 
visits  it  with  such  unrelieved  gloom,  as  that 
of  immortality,  when  it  is  even  touched  by 
a  man  who  is  not  living  immortally.  Dare 
not,  O  man  of  time !  to  deal  with  its  sublime 
implications.  If  you  should  succeed  in  con- 
cealing your  own  mere  temporalness,  that 
result  might  mislead  a  weak  one.  Better 
never  even  speak  of  it,  than  to  visit  upon  it 
the  ethical  limitations  created  by  a  life  of 
mortality.  Only  a  man  who  walks  in  the 
eternity  of  God,  even  now,  can  release  the 
fragrance  from  that  blossom  which  is  called 
*^foreverr     One  flash  from  the  eye  of  a  true 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  II7 

minister  of  God, — a  man  who  has  disdained 
the  asserted  finahties  of  earth's  judgment- 
seat  and,  instead,  has  fixed  his  vision  upon 
the  Great  White  Throne, — is  more  than  elo- 
quence. This  requires  an  accompHshment  of 
character  and  an  achievement  of  personality 
which  is  transcendent  and  comes  through 
Spiritual  Life  alone.  Ease,  distinction,  and 
the  comforts  of  earth,  the  dull  unanimity  of 
men's  praise,  freedom  from  the  responsibili- 
ties which  would  torture,  if  they  did  not 
glorify  the  heart  which  bears  them — not 
these;  only  a  life  constantly  moving  in  the 
range  of  the  everlasting  is  able  to  give  a 
pulpit  the  message  and  comfort  of  immor- 
tality. This  life  is  to  be  lived,  only  by  the 
love  of  Him  who  is  the  author  of  immortality. 
Tremendous  will  be  the  pull  against  certain 
truths,  as  to  God  and  man.  Robespierre  said : 
"When  the  existence  of  God  is  denied,  it  will 
be  denied  by  aristocrats."  It  is  in  the  inter- 
est of  a  certain  godless  aristocracy,  to  have 
no  God.  Just  so  and  now,  you  will  find  men 
in  your  churches  who  are  occupying  the  high 
positions,  possibly,  who  will  not  give  up  a 


Il8  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

false  political  economy,  and  who  therefore 
question  the  doctrine  of  the  universal  brother- 
hood of  man.  We  do  not  need  to  "go  back 
to  the  old  doctrines  "  so  much  as  we  need  to 
go,  for  hope,  comfort,  and  safety,  to  the  Spir- 
itual Life,  which  once  generated  them  and 
which  alone  will  ever  glorify  them. 

We  must  have  the  nature  of  things  on  our 
side.  And  this  is  ultimately  an  affair  of  life. 
Spiritual  Life  will  authenticate  views  of  the 
methods  of  life,  such  as  those  of  the  corn  of 
wheat,  mustard  seed,  and  lily.  This  is  our 
Christ's  method,  as  reflected  in  His  speech. 
Nothing  but  life  can  apprehend  life.  All 
methods  of  life  will  be  mechanical  and  legal, 
unless  a  man  knows  that  love  of  light  is, 
fundamentally,  love  of  life.  Through  his  own 
experience  of  living  spiritual  realities  and 
only  thus,  the  highest  and  most  blessed  as- 
sertions of  Christianity  are  made  believable. 
They  are  livable.  They  grow  to  seem  im- 
practicable until  we  practice  them.  Such  a 
doctrine  as  that  of  God  revealed  in  humanity 
can  never  be  believed  long,  where  it  is  not 
Hved. 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  1 19 

We  may  add  that  the  true  doctrine  of  the 
incarnation  of  God  in  Christ,  which  includes 
the  atonement,  cannot  even  be  known  as  a 
practicable  proposition,  without  the  preacher 
of  it  being,  in  some  sense,  one  who  himself 
experiences  the  incarnation  of  God.  An  esti- 
mate of  human  nature  which  carries  such 
values  as  God's  incarnation  of  Himself  in 
Jesus  Christ,  the  atoning  life  and  sacrificial 
death  of  the  Master  on  Calvary,  is  the  like- 
liest of  all  things  to  fail  before  the  cold 
analysis  of  the  intellect,  unless,  through  a 
warm  spiritual  life,  these  diviner  sides  of  hu- 
man redemption  are  constantly  experienced. 
All  is  well,  only  when  the  head  is  warmed  by 
heart's  blood.  Yet  the  emotions  themselves 
are  so  stirred  and  wrought  upon  by  a  Christ- 
mas or  an  Easter  morning  which  are  likely 
to  be  more  distinguished  for  the  aesthetic 
presentations  of  the  truths  of  incarnation  and 
the  resurrection  than  for  any  other ;  and  even 
Good  Friday's  minor  harmonies  so  stimulate 
and  exhaust  the  feelings,  that  there  is  need  to 
enlist  the  guidance  and  calm  of  the  intellect, 
especially  where  we  have  so  much  of  warmth. 


I20  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

It  is  certainly  not  a  full  perfect  ministering 
to  men  when  we  so  speak  that  our  people 
fail  to  recognize  the  atoning  principle  carried 
to  its  loftiest  height  in  the  death  of  Jesus. 
The  judgment  and  reason,  the  conscience 
and  will  are  so  likely  to  be  left  out  of  the 
whole  matter  which  these  majestic  realities 
involve,  that  even  the  minister,  if  he  is  deal- 
ing with  the  problem  thus  partially  and  only 
so,  forgets  in  his  preaching  to  estimate  the 
value  of  the  most  apparently  hopeless  crea- 
ture in  his  congregation,  by  the  awful  meas- 
urings  of  these  truths.  You  will  always  for- 
get what  is  not  in  and  of  your  true  life. 
You  may  sit  for  hours  and  work  yourselves 
over  and  over,  towards  an  interest  which  you 
hope  will  keep  your  mind  keyed  up  to  these 
valuations.  It  will  all  fail.  Only  personal 
spirituality  will  so  totalize  a  man,  that  his 
intellect,  sensibilities  and  will  shall  find  all 
truth  streaming  out  and  in  with  respect  to 
the  central  circle  of  himself  which  we  call 
conscie7ice.  Here  all  streams  are  one.  This 
is  the  supreme  point  of  his  life.  There  must 
come  into  every  man's  life,  in  an  experience 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  121 

indubitable  and  unforgetable,  the  fact  that 
God  is  seeking  to  reveal  Himself  through  us 
and  must  reveal  Himself  through  us,  if  He 
reveals  Himself  at  all,  in  the  same  way 
of  humiliation  and  self-sacrifice,  which  we 
preach  as  the  secret  of  Jesus.  We  must 
know,  to  make  men  believe,  that  a  human 
life,  which  is  the  manifestation  of  God  through 
a  man,  means  Calvary,  even  now,  as  it  also 
means  Easter  morning  and  Olivet,  in  the 
final  issue  of  earth. 

Two  things  let  us  reflect  upon  : 

I.  A  vivid  sense  of  the  worth  of  any  other 
man  comes  into  the  soul  of  the  minister,  who 
has  really  lived  the  Gospel  all  the  way  from 
God,  whose  good  news  it  is  to  the  human 
beings  who  need  all  good  words  so  much. 

II.  The  unity  of  doctrine,  which  is  the 
unity  of  truth,  cannot  be  realized  except  by 
the  life  integral — the  life  that  is  an  unit — the 
Spiritual  Life. 

Our  only  way  of  escape  from  the  material- 
ism of  our  time  and  of  avoiding  disseminat- 
ing it,  is  by  the  Spiritual  Life.  The  urgency 
of  Spiritual  Life   is  the  urgency   of  health, 


122  .THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

which  is  '' holihy^  or  ''holiness''  and  ''whole- 
nessy  No  materiahsm  in  practice  can  stand 
its  winsome  victoriousness.  And  when  ma- 
terialism is  rooted  out  of  conduct,  and  es- 
pecially out  of  feeling,  by  the  incoming  and 
displacement  wrought  by  the  fresh  presence 
of  the  spiritual,  there  is  little  need  to  be 
combative  with  scientific  disproofs  of  the  ma- 
terialist's intellectual  position.  Over  and  be- 
neath the  little  realm  in  one's  mind,  to  which 
the  universe  is  compressed  by  materialism, 
lie  the  vast  realms  which  the  Spiritual  Life 
knows,  as  it  feeds  upon  its  verities ;  and  the 
strength  with  which  a  minister  emerges  from 
these  higher  and  deeper  regions  is  a  strength 
against  which  no  shrewdness  or  skill  of 
argumentation  shall  prevail.  Indeed,  by  its 
side,  no  wisdom,  except  the  wisdom  of  a  little 
child,  may  stand. 

Our  time  has  the  right  and  the  disposition 
to  honour  each  of  you  ever,  not  only  as  a 
truth-proclaimer  but  as  a  truth-seeker.  It 
therefore  demands  of  you  a  spiritual  fineness. 
You  must  be  able  to  stand  unabashed,  in  the 
company  of  any  band  of  truth-seekers  and 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  1 23 

share  their  experiences.  Nay,  more !  You 
ought  to  be  their  minister  and  leader.  Be 
sure  that  you  grasp  their  hands  and  toil  with 
them,  your  eye  intent  to  see  the  deepest 
truth  of  man  and  God.  No  ordinary  epic  is 
this  which  you  are  to  create  in  your  own 
life,  if  you  associate  worthily  with  the  world's 
truth-seekers. 

Having  already  on  hand  a  physical 
universe  whose  latest  thin  and  spirit-like 
rungs  of  the  ladder  upward  are  the  X-Ray 
and  Radium,  any  new  and  finer  height  will 
be  ascended  only  by  your  brother  truth- 
seekers  in  natural  science,  whose  passion  is 
for  Truth  and  whose  supreme  quality  is  Truth- 
fulness. You,  as  well  as  they,  will  heroically 
put  away  all  pleasant  lies.  You  will  not  be 
afraid  of  being  called  inconsistent,  if  you  are 
tacking  ship  on  your  unmarked  course.  Not 
even  popular  acclaim  for  your  errors  will  lead 
you  to  defend  them.  You  will  of?er  any 
amount  of  labour  and  the  quality  of  sincere 
enthusiasm,  as  your  forerunners  have.  Their 
all  has  often  been  devoted  to  a  long  investi- 
gation, whose  end  was  a  brilliant  and  popu- 


124  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

larly  welcomed  error.  The  expense  was  as 
sublime  as  its  investment  appears  pathetic. 
Personal  truthfulness  always  has  its  triumph 
here.  There  is  no  finer  heroism  than  that 
which  stands,  after  long  prospecting  and  tun- 
nelling, and  expending  of  means  and  toil  and 
hope,  at  last  in  possession  of  shining  frag- 
ments, which  the  world  is  willing  to  make  into 
current  coin, — the  tired  searcher  for  Truth, 
however,  hushing  the  shouts  of  the  crowd  by 
saying  :  "  Friends  of  mine,  this  is  beautiful ; 
it  has  been  won  at  great  sacrifice,  but  it  is 
not  gold."  I  see  this  kind  of  heroism  every 
day  in  the  laboratory.  I  would  have  it  in 
every  minister's  study. 

The  minister  of  the  future  will  be  master  of 
that  process  which  Matthew  Arnold  called 
"character  passing  into  intellectual  produc- 
tions." His  results  will  be  true  results,  only 
because  his  character  is  true.  He  will  be  so 
true  as  to  never  fear  for  truth.  Often  he  will 
say,  with  old  Hales  of  Eton  :  "  If  with  all  this 
cost  and  pain  my  poor  chase  is  but  error,  I 
may  sa)'^  to  err  hath  cost  me  more  than  it 
has  many  to  gain  the  truth."     No  honestly 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  1 25 

gained  error  but  proves  an  approach  to  truth. 
The  Truth-lover  had  to  tack  ship ;  that  is  all. 
When  he  is  truest,  his  acquaintance  with 
Truth  is  so  satisfactory  that  he  preaches  with 
Frederic  Ozanam,  of  the  Sorbonne,  on  "  The 
Duty  of  Being  Just  to  Error."  This  state  of 
mind  does  not  come  of  superficialness  of  feel- 
ing as  to  Truth.  But  it  bubbles  up  from  a 
depth  of  faith  that  fears  nothing  and  will  do 
all  for  Truth.  "  All  things  work  together  for 
truth  to  them  who  love  the  truth^^  for  the 
same  reason,  psychological  and  theological, 
that  "all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them  who  love  GodP 

A  lying  nature  in  the  laboratory  of  the 
future  will  make  every  test-tube  or  retort, 
which  he  works  in,  a  liar.  The  acid  and 
alkali  which  he  touches  are  speedily  inca- 
pable of  telling  the  truth.  He  simply  must 
put  his  false  personality  into  the  solution.  An 
untrue  nature  is  not  less  dangerous  in  any 
study.  The  "personal  equation"  is  every- 
thing. No  man  who  is  more  interested 
in  finding  something  which  will  support  his 
opinion,  than  he  is  in  finding  truth  for  truth's 


126  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

own  sake,  has  any  right  to  handle  the  fine 
apparatus  of  Hfe.  This  is  the  curse  on  the 
System-Maiier.  He  is  always  after  some- 
thing which  will  fit  in  and  brace  up  his 
System.  If  Truth  comes  forth  and  does  not 
lend  herself  to  singing  in  time  and  tune  with 
his  partially  organized  choir — then,  of  course, 
Truth  will  not  do.  No  other  such  blind- 
ness as  to  Truth  comes  to  any,  except  to  the 
coward  who  is  always  asking  of  Truth  :  "  Is  it 
safe  ?  "  or  to  the  dividend-hunter  who  asks  of 
Truth  :  *'  Will  it  pay?"  To  such  essentially 
untrue  souls,  Truth  is  neither  safe  nor  profit- 
able. 

The  interests  of  Truth  will  always  be  safe 
in  the  hands  of  true  men,  and  they  will  al- 
ways be  imperilled  in  the  hands  of  untrue 
men.  True  men  may  make  mistakes,  but 
things  will  righten  themselves  up  in  time, 
and  the  mistake  will  be  forgotten,  and  Truth 
and  spirituality  of  life  will  walk  together 
again.  This  is  the  comfort  of  the  Church. 
When  a  David  sings  his  Psalms,  and  a  Peter 
preaches  his  sermon,  we  know  that  these 
men  have  fallen  and  are  likely  to  fall  again, 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  127 

but  the  root  of  the  matter  is  in  them  and 
they  will  rise  up  with  their  faces  Zionward ; 
and,  after  all  is  said  or  done,  they  alone 
are  trustworthy  as  to  the  interests  of  Truth. 
Their  lamentable  blunders  serve  to  accentu- 
ate its  message  and  emphasize  its  supremacy. 
Other  men  may  systematize  Truth  into  more 
crystal-like  form,  but  it  is  as  dead  as  it  is 
splendid.  Orthodoxy  of  statement  may  be 
theirs,  but  a  living  wheat  kernel  is  more 
valuable  than  the  most  accurately  cut  and 
gloriously  polished  Koh-i-noor.  If  a  queen, 
with  a  newly  discovered  India  on  her  hands, 
could  choose  between  the  gem  and  a  single 
wheat  kernel — there  being  but  one  such  gem 
and  a  solitary  kernel — she  would  choose 
the  kernel,  and  grow  enough  wheat,  in  time, 
to  buy  a  thousand  such  gems. 

These  reflections  come  to  mean  more, 
when  we  note  that  a  certain  devitalized,  or 
at  least  non-vital  religiousness  tends  to 
things  crystallized.  Life,  however,  always 
exults  in  living  things ;  handling  them, 
growing  them,  and  reaping  their  harvests. 

Perhaps   the   pulpit   of    our   day   has   no 


128  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

surer  title  to  power  than  its  unwillingness  to 
throw  aside  irreverently  any  crystallization 
of  Truth  which  may  have  been  as  partial  as 
it  was  helpful,  preferring  rather  the  displac- 
ing and  expulsive  process  of  growth,  finding 
at  length  that  the  crystallization  has  been 
but  a  shell  which  was  meant  to  be  broken, 
in  order  that  the  ever-living  germ  might  be 
developed.  The  rebound  from  a  too-slavish 
adherence  to  hard  forms,  especially  for  the 
reason  that  institutions  allied  with  certain 
formulae  must  be  preserved,  has  come ;  and 
we  have  gone  as  far  in  the  other  direction, 
mentally,  as  we  ought.  The  ethical  aspect 
of  the  whole  question  must,  however,  claim 
the  attention  of  every  man. 

How  far  can  a  minister  go,  in  accepting 
the  salary  and  social  and  clerical  emolument 
which  come  along  with  a  statement  of  what 
has  been  supposed  to  be  true,  which,  never- 
theless, at  its  best,  is  but  a  statement  of  a  part 
of  truth,  and,  at  its  worst,  is  a  statement  of 
what  is  false  ?  It  is  not  so  much  to  the  point 
that  the  world  knows  it  and  has  us  on  trial, — 
the  indictment  against  us  insisting  that  we 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  1 29 

dare  not  preach  our  creedal  statements  and 
that  we  forebear  from  preaching  what  is  our 
real  beUef.  Every  minister  knows  that  to  be 
proven  guilty  by  the  world  is  of  no  such  im- 
portance as  to  be  guilty  of  duplicity  in  these 
things  before  God  and  himself.  There  can 
be  no  estimate  too  large  of  the  desolation 
wrought  with  the  sanctities  of  the  minister's 
own  conscience, — the  self-respect  which  is 
central  to  the  life  of  the  man,  as  well  as  the 
reverence  and  regard  which  any  community 
loves  to  pay  to  manly  straightforwardness 
and  moral  leadership, — by  the  procedure  of 
silence  or  compromise  in  these  matters. 

Perhaps  nowhere  has  there  been  more  un- 
flinching honesty  and  transparent  veracity 
with  regard  to  opinions,  and  especially  with 
regard  to  tabulated  attainments  of  truth,  than 
in  the  modern  scientific  movement.  We 
ought  to  be  at  least  as  frank  and  true.  We 
have  had  many  brave  and  true  men  who 
have  treated  their  ministerial  character  in 
the  same  lofty  manner  as  that  of  Tyndall, 
when,  with  everything  to  gain  temporarily, 
and  with  the  yelping  pack  of  scandal-mon- 


I30  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

gering  clericals  at  his  heels  and  the  applause 
of  the  multitude  of  fellow- thinkers  waiting 
for  his  word — after  many  years  of  effort,  he 
said  to  his  wife,  in  the  joy  of  possessing 
truth  which  would  have  been  welcome  to 
any  but  a  true  soul  under  the  circumstances : 
"  My  dear,  I  must  say  that  the  assumption  of 
spontaneous  generation  is  unsound."  Gold- 
win  Smith  tells  us  that  Jowett  of  Balliol, 
Stanley  of  Westminster,  and  Wilberforce  of 
Oxford,  are  only  a  few  of  the  large  number 
of  clergymen  who,  in  his  own  time,  "kept 
their  positions  of  trust  and  honour  while 
necessarily  these  acute  and  progressive 
thinkers  were  destroying  the  creedal  state- 
ments to  whose  defense  they  had  given  their 
solemn  pledge."  He  says,  "I  have  always 
looked  upon  Huxley  as  a  notable  instance 
of  the  division  which  is  taking  place  between 
the  dogmas  and  the  ethics  of  Christianity ; 
the  dogmas  remaining  with  the  orthodox, 
the  ethics  often  going  to  the  infidel.  Upon 
the  ethics  it  is  to  be  hoped  Christendom  will 
reunite." 

It  is  the  ethics  of  which  such  men  speak 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  13I 

that  must  furnish  a  basis  for  any  orthodoxy 
which  is  worth  the  name.  It  is  too  late  for 
dead  men  to  be  heroic,  and  it  always  is  too 
late  for  a  man  without  a  decisive  sense  of 
righteousness  to  be  heroic  ;  but  it  is  not  too 
late  for  heroic  men  to  so  relate  themselves  to 
the  creeds — good,  bad,  or  indifferent, — that 
each  man  shall  at  least  possess  himself  in 
God,  in  his  own  reverence,  and  communicate 
the  worthiness  of  his  character  as  a  minister, 
which  will  always  be  the  greatest  part  of  his 
message  to  men. 

Now  that  we  have  learned  so  much  as  to 
the  frightful  cost  the  Church  is  having  to  pay 
for  past  silence  and  compromise,  no  man 
ought  to  take  a  church  which,  years  agone, 
has  ever  so  honestly  accepted  a  creed  which 
now  is  impossible  to  the  mind  and  conscience 
of  the  person,  without  his  declaring,  for  the 
sake  of  a  conservatism  which  is  more  than  a 
preserysLtlsm  and  which  alone  will  keep  the 
faith,  his  exact  and  unwillingly  chosen  posi- 
tion. 

There  will  always  work  within  us  a  just 
desire  to  maintain  the  continuity  of  Christian 


132  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

teaching  and  the  development  of  orthodoxy. 
Orthodoxy  may  appear  to  us  as  only  the 
truth  which  has  been  generally  received  and 
accredited.  If  it  is  to  live,  it  must  live  upon 
the  lips  and  in  the  conduct  and  through  the 
influence  of  the  preacher.  It  must  be  itself 
such  a  living  body  of  truth,  that  it  has  the 
power  of  assimilation  and  appropriation  in 
the  presence  of  all  freshly  apprehended  truth. 
It  must  have  the  power  of  feeding  upon  and 
remaking  itself  out  of  what  we  call  "  new 
truth."  This  means  the  power  of  sloughing 
off  form  after  form  which  may  have  appeared 
a  thing  of  permanence.  The  orthodoxy  of 
the  preacher  will  always  be  less  than  the  en- 
tire universe  of  truth.  His  chief  interest, 
therefore,  will  be  in  the  truth  itself. 

This  is  a  position  essential  to  an  energetic 
ministry,  but  it  is  a  position  which  will  not  be 
held  for  long,  except  by  the  warm  grasp  of 
the  minister's  Spiritual  Life.  Intellectually, 
he  will  find  the  privilege  of  silence  inviting 
enough  to  his  coldness.  There  will  be  a  mul- 
titude of  reasons  for  compromise,  in  order 
that  this  one  or  that  one  shall  not  be  wounded, 


ITS   RELATION   TO   TRUTH  133 

if  the  minister  is  unheroic  at  the  seat  and 
centre  of  his  Hfe.  Spiritual  vitality  alone  will 
keep  truth  and  the  true  man  from  being 
parted  in  this  crisis. 

There  are  doubtless  perils  in  the  other  di- 
rection, against  which  we  must  be  constantly- 
warned.  The  ease,  not  to  say  self-satisfac- 
tion, with  which  men  sometimes  give  up  the 
truth  is  scarcely  less  than  fearful.  Let  it  be 
remembered  by  us  all,  that  we  will  give  up  the 
spiritual  truths  which  command  us  to  a  richer 
spiritual  Hfe  and  require  from  us  a  higher 
spiritual  intensity,  not  because  they  are 
proven  false  to  us,  but  because  we  are  false 
to  them.  A  man  may  well  insist  that  his 
personal  orthodoxy  shall  be  true  ;  a  minister 
must  insist  that  all  the  truth  he  knows  shall 
become  his  orthodoxy  practically.  Never 
give  your  congregation  the  right  to  think  that 
in  one  part  of  your  mind  you  hold  certain 
things  as  orthodox  and  elsewhere  you  hold 
certain  other  things  as  true. 

Moving  from  the  authority  of  councils,  as 
man  has,  to  the  authority  of  personal  judg- 
ment associated  with  the  long  history  of  ideas, 


134  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

he  is  far  from  being  sure  of  himself.  He  can 
be  sure,  only  in  his  God,  through  Christ,  by 
the  truth  he  has  lived  and  is  living.  He  must 
know  the  truthfulness  of  his  truth,  first  of  all 
in  the  truthfulness  of  his  own  spiritual  life, 
and  then  in  the  lives  of  others.  Finally  truth 
will  come  back  to  him,  from  them,  with  new 
voices  for  him.  Thus  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
a  neighbourhood  will  be  immeasurably  ex- 
alted, by  a  common  understanding  attained 
at  last,  that  Truth  is  something  to  live  with, 
and  forever. 


LECTURE  IV 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND  THE 
PRESENT      SOCIAL     PROBLEM 


LECTURE  IV 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND  THE 
PRESENT  SOCIAL  PROBLEM 

WHATEVER  else  our  minister  is,  he 
is  tlie  representative  and  ought  to 
be  the  incarnation  of  Christian 
scholarship.  His  very  presence  in  the  com- 
munity places  Christianity  and  culture  on  a 
pedestal.  As  his  personality  is  vigorous, 
they  will  be  seen  of  all  eyes.  Now  it  hap- 
pens that  it  is  Christian  scholarship  which 
attests  how  much  nearer  is  the  perpetual  day, 
by  the  deeper  problem  of  the  moment.  Con- 
sider our  own,  and  see  how  deep  and  insistent 
it  is.  Many  have  been  the  functions  offered 
for  his  choice,  when  the  minister  of  Christ 
came  to  town,  in  former  days,  but  now  there 
are  no  controversies  as  to  what  Christian 
scholarship  shall  be  and  do,  which  do  not 
silence  themselves  in  the  presence  of  the  one 
tragic  question  which  our  day  has  found  at 
137 


138  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

hand.  The  minister  is  more  distinctly  than 
at  any  other  time  the  leader  of  the  educa- 
tional forces  of  his  community,  because  his  it 
is  to  make  ideas  the  servants  of  conscience. 

With  pathetic  appeal  to  all  that  is  real 
within,  and  with  noble  faith  in  all  that  is 
prophetic  without,  the  spirit  of  our  time, 
quickened  by  Christ's  influence  and  ideas, 
declines  to  stop  longer  with  the  elder  edu- 
cational controversy  as  to  what  proportion 
our  culture  shall  contain  of  the  language  of 
nature  and  the  languages  of  man.  The 
query  as  to  whether  our  Erasmus  shall  be 
a  Newton,  and  whether  our  Queen  Elizabeth 
shall  answer  the  learned  ambassadors  in  both 
Latin  and  Greek,  or  entertain  them  with  the  re- 
ported behaviour  of  insect  or  star,  if  unsettled, 
is  at  least  postponed.  All  discussions  which 
have  arisen,  in  hours  less  conscious  of  the 
realities  which  we  confront,  out  of  either  the 
materialism  or  insincerity  of  our  age,  are 
sternly  put  aside.  These  are  hours  when  the 
problem  of  rich  and  poor  detains  the  scholar 
at  the  relief  office,  if  he  may  not  solve  it  else- 
where.    Its   solution   involves  the   future  of 


AND  THE  PRESENT  SOCIAL  PROBLEM    1 39 

Christianity  as  well  as  of  learning.  It  over- 
awes everything.  It  dominates  the  school. 
The  Church  has  been  compelled  to  postpone 
trials  for  heresy  or  discussion  as  to  apostolic 
postures,  until  she  may  either  reaffirm  the 
Golden  Rule,  or  be  stirred  by  some  simple 
evangelist  who  seems  unique,  because  he  ut- 
ters to  what  have  been  her  falsities  and  indo- 
lence the  Decalogue  and  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
There  is  a  lull  in  the  threatening  approach  of 
acute  experiences  to  some  observers. 

Touching  therefore  these  forces  at  many 
points,  I  warn  you  we  are  nearer  the  begin- 
ning than  the  end  of  the  process  of  read- 
justment which  itself  may  be  final.  Both 
our  scholarship  and  our  religious  hopes, 
bound  together  in  hope  and  service  as  they 
are  in  our  present  society,  must  not,  at  least 
in  the  Christian  minister's  thought  and  life, 
relapse  into  sleep ;  and  now,  if  they  are 
worthy  of  the  hour,  they  will  studiously  con- 
front the  situation  and  measure  their  strength 
against  foes  which  they  alone  may  conquer. 

The  more  cultured  our  minister  to-day,  the 
less   remote   shall   he   be   from  this  task  of 


140  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

making  a  lasting  peace.  Not  Isaiah's  age,  or 
that  of  Nehemiah  or  Jeremiah,  could  give,  as 
yours  and  mine  may  give,  the  opportunity  for 
a  man  who  is  a  statesman,  because  he  is  first 
God's  prophet  as  to  the  social  crisis. 

Our  culture  has  heard,  especially  since  the 
shock  and  thunder  of  our  civil  war  have  died 
away,  how  like  the  soul  of  Milton,  its  spirit 
should  exist.  It  has  listened  to  the  familiar 
words  : — 

"  Thy  soul  was  like  a  star  and  dwelt  apart :  " 

and  the  easy  obedience  of  our  scholarship  to 
that  conception  has  furnished  an  example  at 
once  of  heartiness  and  of  grace.  But  she  that 
learned  not  the  other  lines  of  Wordsworth's 
eulogy  of  him  who  was  Cromwell's  Latin 
secretary  is  learning  much  else.  She  learns 
now  the  peril  with  which  any  exiled  truth 
comes  home,  as  she  is  commanded  by  the 
voices  of  the  hour,  in  the  mutterings  of 
approaching  storms,  to  come  forth  from  her 
retreats  of  scholastic  refinement  and  her 
homes  of  meditative  ease,  and  speak,  as  this 
same  Milton  spoke,  in  order  that  even  yet 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     14I 

delayed  duties  may  be  performed  and  the 
panic  be  over-past. 

' '  Thou  hadst  a  voice  whose  sound  was  like  the  sea, 
Pure  as  the  naked  heavens,  majestic,  free : 
So  thou  didst  travel  on  life's  common  way 
In  cheerful  godliness  :  and  yet  thine  heart 
The  lowliest  duties  on  herself  did  lay." 

The  educational  question  of  the  hour  is  the 
question  of  our  statecraft  and  of  our  religion  ; 
and  it  is  not  whether  our  Roger  Ascham  and 
Lady  Jane  Grey  shall  spend  the  delightful 
hours  in  translating  the  ideas  of  Plato  into 
seven  languages,  or  in  discovering  the  secrets 
of  nature  by  triumphs  in  seven  sciences,  but 
whether  the  greatest  truth  to  which  they  may 
have  come  shall  have  the  accents  of  authority 
unto  their  powers  to  be  and  to  do.  This 
involves,  for  all  of  us,  the  working  in  us  of  a 
mighty  moral  motive  power.  We  cannot 
merely  wrap  ourselves  up  in  glorious  truths. 
They  are  glorious  only  because  they  already 
glow.  Whether  we  will  or  no,  the  air  is  on 
fire,  and  it  will  consume  to  the  very  skin, 
which  it  covers,  all  spiritual  clothing  which 
any  Sartor  ResarUis  wears,  that,  in  this  wil- 
derness-march, proves  to  be  unlike  the  gar- 


142  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

ments  of  the  Israelitish  pilgrims  which  never 
grew  old. 

It  is  often  as  pitiful  as  reproachful — the  way 
the  thought  of  our  time  counts  upon  our 
scholarship  rather  than  our  Christianity  to 
get  the  truth,  and  set  it  bringing  to  us  the 
city  of  Humanity  which  we  know  is  the  city 
of  God.  There  is  much  to  be  expected  from 
this.  Scholarship  herself  is  not  yet  so  de- 
bauched by  selfish  ease  or  blinded  by  timidity 
that  she  has  ceased  to  announce  the  peril  of 
holding  burning  truths,  while  she  is  loosely 
clothed  in  inflammable  material :  and  already 
the  word  has  gone  forth  that  realities  so  fiery- 
footed  as  these  which  have  been  tempted 
from  the  clouds  by  our  modern  culture  are 
not  to  be  put  away  in  the  dry  pockets  of  our 
landed  tolerance,  to  wait  our  indolent  employ- 
ment of  them  in  doing  duty.  Truth  will 
transform  opinion  into  conviction  and  impel 
conviction  into  heroic  endeavour ;  or  it  will 
burn  it  to  ashes  and  leave  the  guilty  harbourer 
thereof  blackened  and  charred  with  devour- 
ing flames.  In  the  realm  of  sociology  and 
political  economy,  for  long,  has  our  learning 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     I43 

"  Called  the  red  lightning  from  the  o'er-rushing  cloud 
And  dashed  the  beauteous  terror  on  the  ground 
Smiling  majestic." 

Even  scholarship  knows  we  must  do  some- 
thing more  than  this,  with  Hghtning. 

The  world  of  To-morrow  has  often  been 
lost  beneath  the  feet  of  a  conservative,  in- 
active, self-satisfied  scholarship  ;  and  the  great 
ideas  which  have  come  down  from  above, 
while,  like  the  "  beauteous  terror,"  they  were 
dashed  upon  the  ground,  were  not  ex- 
hausted of  their  power.  They  yet  live  and 
move ;  and  the  silver  shields  flash  with  their 
authority,  as  they  bid  us  clear  the  way  of 
every  consumable  error  and  every  inflam- 
mable wrong  that  they  may  freely  execute 
the  will  of  God.  Scholarship,  without  a  con- 
science alive  to  the  relations  of  man  to  man, 
has  no  place  with  us.  It  is  essentially  athe- 
istic. It  has  no  vision  of  the  Fatherhood 
universal,  for  it  is  blind  to  the  Brotherhood. 

Modern  scholarship  and  Christianity  place 
awful  power  into  our  hands.  Such,  ever,  is 
the  fate  of  power  in  the  universe — that  it  must 
be  used.     Such  is  the  crisis  which  our  scholar 


144  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

always  brings  with  him.  What  is  our  Chris- 
tian scholar  ?  He  is  the  one  being  to  whom 
life  must  always  appear,  both  as  a  vision  and 
as  a  duty.  The  order  of  progress,  now  and 
ever,  is,  first  "  the  new  heavens,"  and  then  "  the 
new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness." 
No  recent  schemes  of  induction  can  change 
this  divine  order.  "Progress,"  says  Hegel, 
"  first  in  the  idea,  then  in  the  thing."  Life  as 
a  vision  into  which  have  been  gathered  every 
noble  idea,  every  true  sentiment,  and  every 
worthy  purpose,  with  all  their  victory  and 
their  hope — a  vision  awfully  grand  with  the 
announcement  that  it  hangs  in  the  heavens 
to  be  obeyed,  glorified  with  the  assurance 
that  it  is  to  be  realized  on  the  earth — this  is 
the  truest  gift  which  years  of  instruction  and 
of  study  may  give  to  the  scholar's  soul. 

At  once,  having  confessed  in  his  first  act  of 
doing  the  intelligent  thing  in  the  midst  of 
ignorance,  that  he  has  yielded  to  the  vision 
and  believes  that  this  ideal  can  be  made  real, 
— that  vision  and  the  duty  become  forever 
allied.  The  vision  makes  the  duty  ideal :  the 
duty  makes  the  vision  real.     The  poetical  is 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     145 

practical ;  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth 
have  come  into  at  least  one  soul — "a  new 
earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness."  Yea 
— "  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness," — that 
which  is  the  conclusion  of  culture  lies  as  a 
faith  at  the  heart  of  any,  mind's  belief  in  the 
desirableness  of  knowledge.  It  grips  the 
preacher  almightily.  And  so  the  highest 
knowledge  must  concern  itself  with  ethics. 
It  has  this  seeking  man  as  the  central  figure 
in  all  its  achievements,  the  ultimatum  of  all 
its  processes.  This  same  being — man — will 
not  stop  with  knowledge,  but,  with  a  distinct- 
ness which  illumines  the  whole  series  of  facts 
which  lie  behind  him  like  mile-stones  on  his 
journey,  he  stands  to  say  as  he  looks  back 
along  the  path  he  came,  through  nature, 
through  time,  through  experience  :  "I  oughts 
Man,  as  a  phenomenon,  confuses  all  but  the 
Christian  scholar.  What  preparations  are 
yours  to  estimate  and  regard  this  thing — man 
— as  an  ethical  fact  and  factor !  The  scholar 
has  felt  a  consciousness  of  eternity  growing  in 
him,  as  he  has  turned  over  layers  of  the 
world's  crystal  story,  untwisted  the  sunbeam 


146  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

and  found  the  quality  of  every  thread, 
watched  the  sea  of  human  thought  with  the 
record  of  its  heart  in  some  tiny  sand-ripple  of 
language,  detected  the  growing  complexities 
of  human  purpose  and  achievement,  and 
sought  to  disentangle  the  unaccountable 
movements  of  brain  and  heart — a  sense  of 
eternity,  in  which  this  being  ma7i  may  gravely 
speak  of  right,  and  truth,  and  goodness. 

The  minister,  as  a  Christian  scholar,  is 
the  deliverer  of  men.  He  is  the  sworn  ac- 
quaintance of  something  still  more  vener- 
able than  their  revering  age,  something 
more  ancient  than  their  prudence  ;  and  into 
their  solemn  cautiousness  concerning  tradi- 
tion it  is  his  to  introduce  the  permanent, 
which  declines,  because  it  needs  not,  their 
police  duty  to  preserve  its  pedigree,  or  to 
enforce  silence.  The  scholar  sees  the  reality 
beneath  all  appearance  :  and  it  is  his  prerog- 
ative and  fortune  to  furnish  to  the  untrained 
his  trained  eye,  that  they,  too,  may  know 
that  there  is  a  sky  above  and  a  river-bed 
beneath  the  flow  of  things.  Wherever  such 
a  soul  goes,  there  goes  hope.     He  has  had 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     I47 

the  experience  of  nature  in  his  science,  the 
experience  of  man  with  ideas  and  principles 
in  history,  the  experience  of  man  with  him- 
self in  his  fearless  study  of  the  soul :  **  and 
experience  worketh  hope."  To  the  hopeless 
man  who  has  seen  his  flag  go  out  of  sight  as 
it  fell  beneath  the  feet  of  wrong,  he  comes  to 
lead  him  out  of  the  atmosphere  of  momen- 
tary defeat  to  a  larger  induction,  and  to  bid 
him  up  and  on.  Wherever  such  a  soul  goes, 
there  go  resoluteness  and  self-respect.  The 
scholar  has  believed  from  the  first  in  the 
desirableness  of  Truth,  else  he  could  never 
woo  and  win  her :  he  has  become  persuaded 
of  her  eternal  trustworthiness,  else  she  would 
leave  him  alone.  The  Truth  will  work — the 
ideal  which  commands  you  is  practical.  No 
accommodating  toleration  of  error  is  wise  or 
right.  No  compromising  economy  of  Truth 
is  prudent  or  just.  "The  right  will  tunnel 
its  own  Alp."  These  announcements  blaze 
from  the  banner  of  every  scholar,  and,  at  his 
heart,  lies  the  faith  of  the  ultimate  unity  of 
dream  and  duty. 

The  true  minister,  who  is  a  modern  scholar, 


148  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

has  also  this  double  task.  He  is  not  only 
the  continue!  and  commentator  upon  every 
predecessor,  who,  by  agony  and  death,  has 
brought  Truth  to  dwell  on  the  earth,  but  he 
also  confronts  the  practical  questions  which 
leap  up  when  the  fresh  Truth  first  encounters 
the  ancient  error,  embodied  as  it  is  in  insti- 
tutions and  living  its  sensitive  life  as  it  does 
in  customs.  He  stands,  as  a  prophet  and  an 
apostle,  where  the  new  Truth  which  his  soul 
knows  waits  unquietly,  whispering  its  haste 
into  the  one  ear  which  listens :  and,  as  a 
champion  and  worker,  he  beholds  the  critical 
hours  go  by,  in  which  the  elder  Truth  of  his 
predecessor  gains  here  an  inch  and  there  an- 
other, as  it  conquers  the  souls  of  men.  His 
love  of  Truth  has  not  robbed  him  of  fraternal 
sympathy  with  the  stoutest  opposer.  Nay ; 
he  loves  Truth  the  more  for  the  brother's  sake 
to  whom  the  Truth  is  yet  heresy.  He  knows 
that  Truth  is  fated  to  rule  :  he  knows  that  the 
earth  will  resist.  Custom  will  beg  and  curse 
and  bleed :  tradition  will  pray  and  excom- 
municate: institutions  will  frown  and  execute  : 
ease  and  wealth  will  attempt  to  seduce  and 


AND  THE  PRESENT  SOCIAL  PROBLEM  I49 

silence :  ignorance  will  forbid :  but  Truth  and 
men  are  bound  to  meet  on  good  terms  or 
evil,  in  persuasion  or  in  revolution  ;  and  the 
scholar,  if  he  be  manly  and  true  to  his  Truth 
and  mankind,  must  clear  the  way  of  its  im- 
mortal advance  to  the  human  soul.  Truth 
carries  into  the  hand  which  holds  it  the  obli- 
gation to  realize  it,  to  incarnate  it.  It  will 
not  promise  safety  to  the  man  who  detains  it 
for  speculation,  or  keeps  it  until  the  sleepy 
world  wakes  and  asks  him  for  his  wares. 
Inflammable  by  nature,  to  warm,  to  blaze 
like  a  beacon,  or  to  burn  up  the  untrue,  it 
will  not  be  packed  in  the  warehouses  of  the 
private  soul  or  public  sentiment.  It  is  never 
safe,  except  when,  on  lightning  feet,  it  runs 
from  soul  to  soul. 

Now,  for  many  years,  our  scholarship  has 
been  discovering  and  harbouring  more  Truth 
as  to  the  relations  of  what  Yale  has  called 
"the  haves  and  the  have  nots,"  than  we  have 
trusted.  We  have  been  timid  about  giving 
it  out,  for  fear  of  all  sorts  of  consequences. 
We  have  been  cowardly  about  giving  it  free 
course,  for  fear  of  that  unholy  value  which 


I50  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

has  been  set  upon  customs  which  it  might 
assault,  and  institutions  which  it  certainly 
will  destroy.  Penniless  improvidence  and 
gigantic  greed  have  issued  their  threats 
founded  upon  most  illogical  inferences,  and 
to  these  we  have  apologized  for  Truth's  early 
appearance.  Conservatism  and  radicalism 
have  exhausted  their  resources  of  quotable 
commonplaces,  and  our  culture  has  well-nigh 
lost  its  courage.  Only  the  Christian  scholar 
may  have  faith,— y^/V/z  in  the  simple  right- 
eousness which  has  won  every  victory  whose 
story  our  culture  tells — the  righteousness 
which  massed  the  republican  cantons  of 
Switzerland  against  the  arbitrary  dominance 
of  Austrian  dukes ;  the  righteousness  which 
set  the  marshes  of  Holland  aflame  against 
Philip  II ;  the  righteousness  which  em- 
powered England  against  Louis  XIV,  and 
taught  France  to  dethrone  her  kings ;  the 
righteousness  which  made  Greece  repeat 
Marathon  against  the  Turk ;  the  righteous- 
ness of  Kossuth  and  of  Deak,  yea,  even  the 
righteousness  of  Pilgrim  and  Puritan,  of  Otis 
and    Warren,    of    Garrison    and    Ellsworth. 


AND  THE  PRESENT  SOCIAL  PROBLEM  151 

When  we  are  complex  and  unspiritual,  this 
has  been  too  simple  for  our  involved  and 
ambitious  culture  to  utter  and  defend  ;  and  if 
there  is  to  be  a  storm  whose  clouds  apparently 
have  already  been  marshalled  everywhere, 
it  will  organize  its  deadliest  currents  in  the 
interspace  between  the  truth  we  know  and 
the  error  we  tolerate  ;  it  will  swell  with  direst 
cruelties  in  the  void  between  what  scholar- 
ship knows  is  right  and  what  scholarship 
sees  is  wrong.  Culture  has  well-nigh  Chris- 
tianized so-called  Christian  Theology.  May 
not  culture  Christianize  our  political  economy? 
The  scientific  movement  discloses  the 
main  current  of  scholarship.  Is  this  our 
dependence?  Then,  of  course,  the  day  is 
lost  for  the  pulpit  and  its  minister,  at  least 
as  to  preeminence.  What  does  culture 
make  us  say  ?  What  is  the  scholar  sure  of, 
while  often  the  preacher  hesitates?  Fresh 
from  the  fields  and  seas,  heavy  with  the 
trophies  of  research,  comes  our  modern 
scholar ;  and  our  culture  agrees  that  man  is 
the  key  of  nature's  every  mystery,  because 
he  is  the  goal  towards  which  she  has  tended 


152  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

from  the  beginning.  Every  waif  of  matter 
thrills  with  prophecies  of  him  ;  every  force 
in  the  ooze  and  slime  runs  manward ;  every 
wandering  atom  has  a  home  for  its  lost 
meaning  in  his  brain  and  heart.  Scholar- 
ship adds  to  this  the  story  of  how  brain 
dominates  brawn,  and  how  conscience  sits 
supreme  over  all.  What  use  have  we  made 
of  this  idea  of  the  value  of  man,  in  our  treat- 
ment of  him  in  our  social  economics  ?  Much 
as  the  beauties  and  wits  of  the  French  court 
stood  on  Oriental  carpets,  or  sat  at  luxurious 
tables  and  toyed  the  while  with  the  unsus- 
pected forces  of  the  revolution,  has  our  cul- 
ture sat  in  its  library  and  meditated  in  its  lab- 
oratory, concerning  this  tremendous  and  far- 
reaching  idea  of  the  true  valuation  of  man  as 
seen  in  the  history  of  the  physical  universe. 
Nature's  most  insignificant  movement  has 
been  precious  there,  only  by  how  much  it 
has  hastened  the  development  of  man,  just 
as  time's  most  lauded  era  is  that  which  has 
aided  the  enthronement  of  the  soul  above 
the  body,  and  pointed  most  clearly  to  the 
sovereignty  of  conscience  above  the  intellect. 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM    153 
"  What  will  it  do  for  the  enlightenment  of 
man?"  has  our  historian  asked,  as  he  has 
come    upon    some    turn   in  the   current   of 
affairs   in   the   past.     "What   did   it   do   to 
make  him  more  independent  of  physical  cir- 
cumstances, less  a  slave  of   his  hunger  and 
of    the    weather,    more    deliberate    in    his 
thought,   more    self-determinative— more    a 
man  in  God's  image?"     This  our   student 
has  asked  as  he  has  read  of  some  Alfred's 
influence  or  Wat  Tyler's  rebellion.     So,  in 
our  easy  chairs,  have  we  been  confessing  to 
the  enthronement  of  man.     And  even  behind 
our  stained  windows,  there  has  grown  up  a 
lofty  humanism  as  an  ideal.     It  has  grown 
up  and  has  gone  out  into  the  world  to  con- 
quer by  the  power  of  God.     But  it  confronts 
a  political  economy  which  still  is  the  deifica- 
tion of  laissez-faire.     It  hears  much  of  the 
value  of  machinery  and  the  exquisite  music  of 
mechanism.     It  is  invited  to  look  into  burst- 
ing ledgers  and  wonder  at  the  fortunes  which 
have  come  forth  in  a  day.    We  ask  proudly  if 
ever  silk  like  this  came  from  the  mills  of  any 
other  century?     Did  ever  philosophy  dream 


154  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

that  profits  like  these  could  accumulate  so 
rapidly  ?  Can  the  pages  which  the  scholar 
turns  point  to  such  products  ?  Can  the 
genius  of  discovery  go  beyond  the  whirling 
steel  or  growing  value  of  these?  Answer 
yes  or  no ;  but  our  scholarship  has  at  last 
been  taken  by  what  are  called  dangerous 
classes,  and  they  ask  what  quality  of  man 
does  all  this  bring  forth,  what  tissue  of  heart 
cord,  what  hardness  of  righteous  conviction, 
what  whiteness  of  sentiment,  what  strength 
of  purpose,  what  purity  of  heart  ? 

The  reply  is,  "  Just  now  that  is  a  danger- 
ous method  of  questioning ;  for  Daniel 
Webster,  or  somebody  else,  once  said  that 
property  is  the  basis  of  progress  or  the  main 
thing  to  be  looked  after  in  statecraft.  So 
soon  as  the  labour  problem  is  setded,  we 
mean  to  look  into  that  ;  but  that  is  im- 
practical now."  Ah,  dear  victim  of  soph- 
istry ! — the  truth  as  to  the  value  of  Man  is 
at  last  out  into  the  fields  of  our  political 
economy;  it  has  been  caught  up  by  the 
striker,  and  has  been  flung  into  the  air  by 
the  mob  ;    it  will  be  again  ;  and  you  must 


AND   THE   PRESENT  SOCIAL   PROBLEM     155 

leave  your  ledgers  to  welcome  a  truth  so 
long  delayed.  No  modern  cannon  can 
shoot  this  idea  down,  though  the  mob  be 
slain  at  your  door.  But  we  know  that  this 
idea,  tossed  into  the  air  by  the  agitators, 
does  not  belong  to  them  ?  Yet,  brothers,  who 
shall  tell  them  that  it  means  law  and  not 
anarchy,  since  the  scholar  has  too  little 
known  them  ?  The  communist  will  not 
listen  to  me,  for  I  have  been  quiet  so  long, 
and  the  sunlight  I  have  kept  back  so  long 
only  shows  him  a  dagger  gleaming  at  his  side. 
He  sees  nothing  else  but  that.  So  much 
for  my  "  scholarly  ministry."  My  Chris- 
tianity, slowly  gaining  consciousness,  now 
acknowledges  that  the  religion  which  avows 
that  Man  is  the  great  factor  in  the  equation 
of  this  world,  and  worth  God's  valuation  of 
him  at  the  Cross,  must  insist  on  the  fullest 
agitation  as  to  the  adequacy  of  the  principle 
of  our  current  political  economy.  Because 
vulgar  men  have  stolen  a  flag  which  we  have 
not  defended,  we  must  not  falter  in  making 
it  safe. 

We  are  a  little  late,  because  any  conscien- 


156  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

tious  accountant  with  the  pulpit  ornamented 
by  the  Cross  of  Jesus,  must  reckon  on  the  fact 
that  Christianity  has  been  here  and  witnessed 
the  haughty  growth  and  at  length  the  su- 
premacy of  selfish  greed.  Cabet  said  frankly, 
"If  Christianity  had  been  interpreted  and 
applied  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  if  it  were 
rightfully  understood,  and  faithfully  obeyed 
by  the  numerous  sections  of  Christians  who 
are  really  filled  with  sincere  piety,  and  need 
only  to  know  the  truth  to  follow  it,  then 
Christianity  would  have  sufficed  and  would 
still  suffice  to  establish  a  perfect  social  and 
political  organization,  and  to  deliver  man- 
kind from  all  its  ills."  What  but  our  own 
spiritual  life,  my  brothers,  can  yet  bring  the 
city  of  God  ? 

A  scholarly  Christianity  must  be  depended 
upon  to  insist,  with  the  classes  who  are  likely 
just  now  to  quote  these  neglected  words 
against  wealth,  that  Christianity  proposes 
not  an  abolition  of  labour,  or  a  blessing  on 
improvidence,  but  their  inspiration  and 
glorification  instead.  But,  to  both  the 
wealth  which   has   gone   uninformed  of   its 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     157 

duties,  and  to  the  poverty  which  has  to  say 
nothing  except  of  rights,  the  day  of  reason 
Hes  in  the  breast  of  a  fearless  active  scholar- 
ship acquired  on  and  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross, 
not  in  conned  conclusions  adopted  legisla- 
tively by  an  impersonal  thing  called  a  nation, 
but  in  inwrought  convictions  and  redemptive 
inspirations  creative  in  each  man  of  a  new 
heart.  Our  new  and  true  spiritual  life 
which  will  renovate  and  reconstitute  a  sound 
society  at  this  point  will  begin  in  personal 
regeneration  or  conversion,  and  it  will  begin 
in  the  house  of  God. 

We  hear  much  of  an  era  of  individualism 
closing,  and  an  era  of  communism  opening, 
in  our  day.  Scholarship  must  point  out  how 
dark  a  day  it  will  be  for  humanity  when 
either  of  these  shall  rule  supreme.  It  is  a 
most  vicious  falsity  which  often  hides  under 
our  tongues  when  we  complacently  sing  — 


The  individual  withers,  and  the  world  is  more 
and  more." 


What  is  the  world  for,  but  to  serve  as  a  ma- 
chinery and   scaffolding,  that  the  man  may 


158  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

be  fashioned  and  buiit  the  more  grandly? 
Society  with  forces  of  government  and  subtle 
economics,  a  vast  collection  of  manifold  or- 
ganizations, has  no  defense, — save  as  society 
upbuilds  men.  In  all  the  great  dream  of  hu- 
manity, the  duty  comes  to  the  individual  and 
bears  its  blessing  from  him.  We  shall  have 
a  great  society,  when  the  individuals  compos- 
ing it  are  great.  The  Christ  of  God,  who 
taught  us  of  humanity,  taught  us  most  of  the 
value  of  the  personal  man.  "Somebody," 
said  this  leader  of  men,  ''Somebody  hath 
touched  Mcy  for  I  perceive  that  virtue  hath 
gone  out  from  Me."  The  individual  is 
in  God's  eye,  and  the  weakest  one,  when 
society  has  wronged  him,  has  power  in  his 
whisper  to  revolutionize  customs  and  make 
institutions  tremble  into  dust.  Our  scholar- 
ship needs  to  teach  this  to  our  politics, 
and  social  life,  and  our  religion  must 
grow  more  willing  to  rest  its  kingdom  with 
one  Samaritan  woman  at  the  well,  by  telling 
her  the  most  radical  truth,  rather  than  with 
the  herd  whose  clamour  may  drown  the 
voice. 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     1 59 

Still  must  we  see  that  the  true  individual 
will  love  his  race,  and  that  a  worthy  socialism 
shall  make  him  strong  at  every  point.  Like 
Paul,  our  religion  and  scholarship  must  be 
able  to  write  in  the  same  chapter :  "  Bear 
ye  one  another's  burdens,"  and  "  Every  man 
must  bear  his  own  burden."  Shall  we  not 
be  equal  to  this  task  ? 

On  the  one  side  stands  selfish  ease  and 
wealth,  which  has  intrenched  itself  and  in- 
carnated its  spirit  in  laws  and  institutions, 
lazily  saying  :  "  The  height  of  true  socialism 
means  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  num- 
ber,"— saying  it,  until  it  means  that  so  long  as 
the  majority  is  satisfied  to  call  it  good,  the 
unjust  law,  the  unholy  custom,  is  good, 
though  the  individual  perish — an  individual, 
who,  as  he  goes  to  the  wall,  is  said  to  be  the 
exception  proving  the  rule.  "  The  individual 
withers,  and  the  world  is  more  and  more." 
On  the  other  side  stands  an  unscholarly  com- 
munism, often  miscalled  or  disguised  as  so- 
cialism, which  forgets  that  all  real  freedom 
or  power  is  intensely  personal,  that  all  true 
achievement  comes  by  way  of  the  mdlvid- 


l6o  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

ual ;  that  all  genuine  manhood  is  to  be  won 
each  man  for  himself ;  and  it  prates  about  pa- 
ternal governments  and  human  laws,  which 
are  expected  to  seize  every  indolent  fragment 
and  aimless  atom  of  the  social  world  and 
somehow  consolidate  and  inform  them  all 
with  self-respect,  opulence,  and  power.  It 
says  the  world  must  be  legislated  into  great- 
ness and  goodness,  or  it  must  be  blown  up. 
"The  individual  withers,  and  the  world  is 
more  and  more."  These  are  the  arch-here- 
tics which  scholarship  must  confront. 

The  individual  must  be  preserved.  To 
substitute  any  governmental  influence  which 
may  take  a  nerve  from  his  power,  or  a  dis- 
position to  make  life  and  success  a  personal 
affair,  is  to  do  him  a  great  wrong.  To  take 
away  the  possibility  of  a  struggle  is  to  render 
heroism  impossible  for  him. 

**  Cast  the  bantling  on  the  rocks, 

Suckle  him  with  the  she-wolf's  teat : 
Wintered  with  the  hawk  and  fox, 

Power  and  speed  be  hands  and  feet." 

Nature  and  the  soul  cry  into  the  ears  of 
every  man  who  would  be  born  into  a  prob- 


AND   THE  PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     l6l 

lem  whose  solution  lies  at  hand,  "  Thy  God 
hath  commanded  thy  strength."  Scholarship 
has,  with  Stuart  Mill,  seen  that  this  elimina- 
tion of  personal  liberty  is  the  chronic  weak- 
ness of  modern  socialism.  The  organizations 
which  compel  men  to  work  or  not  to  work, 
at  the  command  of  a  distant  committee,  have 
struck  a  blow  against  the  manhood  of  the 
country.  Every  advance  of  the  labouring 
man  has  come  with  an  enlargement  of  per- 
sonal liberty,  and  this  always  must  mean 
an  enlargement  of  personal  responsibility 
and  of  respect  for  law.  He  does  the  most 
for  the  needy  who  makes  him  strongest 
for  himself.  Power  must  be  inspired,  and 
never  ceases  to  be  personal.  What  shall 
inspire  this  personal  power,  but  a  personal 
religious  life  whose  soul  is  love — the  most 
personal  enthusiasm  of  humanity,  because 
first  it  is  God's  life  revealed  in  the  man 
himself  ? 

But  the  very  wealth  which  agrees  to  all  this 
needs  to  be  taught  its  responsibilities  to  this 
very  individual.  To  some  things  he  has 
rights — to  justice  and  to  brotherhood.     And 


l62  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

the  individual  capitalist  has  the  right — yea, 
the  duty,  of  being  a  brother  to  him.  To  get 
the  richest  and  the  poorest  to  reach  the  best 
they  may  be,  means  to  introduce  them  per- 
sonally to  one  another  beneath  some  true 
moral  ideal.  This  does  not  mean  the  con- 
version of  capital  to  the  uses  of  the  non-capi- 
talist as  such.  The  Christian  minister  must 
discover  to  poverty  and  riches  that  true 
wealth  will  have  less  and  less  to  do  with,  and 
depend  less  and  less  upon  material  things,  and 
more  and  more  upon  the  spiritual.  It  means 
that  both  capitalist  and  labourer  shall  be  so 
spiritually  attached  to  God  the  Father,  through 
Jesus  Christ  the  brother,  that  each  shall  pray : 
"  Our  Father,  Thy  kingdom  come,  and  give 
us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 

Is  it  because  our  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ 
has  not  felt  itself  called  upon  to  perform  any 
duties,  that  only  a  blatant  social  anarchist  to 
the  terror  of  the  capitalist's  soul  cries,  "  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  first  Socialist "  ?  Clergymen  are 
asked  to-day  by  an  orthodoxy,  which,  in  the 
midst  of  ill-gotten  gain,  has  forgotten  its  anx- 
iety about  the  infallible  authority  of  the  Scrip- 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     163 

tures,  if  really  the  Golden  Rule  is  not  an  im- 
practicable sentiment  after  all.  The  most 
dangerous  of  the  dangerous  classes  is  a  man 
who  has  nothing  but  contributions  whereupon 
to  spread  a  Bible  with  the  Golden  Rule  in  it, 
wrapped  up  in  a  theory  of  Scriptural  infalli- 
bility, save  his  systematic  faithlessness  unto 
its  high  behest.  Our  Christian  scholarship 
must  insist  upon  the  fact  that  this  same  lofty 
principle,  called  the  Golden  Rule,  has  put 
more  money  into  the  purse  of  mankind  than 
all  the  selfishness  of  ages.  The  worth  of 
human  life  never  came  from  the  dominance 
of  the  iron-rule.  The  coin  which  stands  for 
a  day's  task  is  richer  to-day,  means  more  of 
opportunity,  represents  more  that  makes  life 
desirable,  than  a  coin  which  stood  for  the  task 
nineteen  hundred  years  ago,  not  because  of 
the  triumph  of  the  policy  of  laissez-faire^  but 
because  of  the  slow  gains  of  that  transcen- 
dental word  of  the  Galilean  visionary  who, 
even  now,  as  then,  in  our  regnant  political 
economy,  has  not  where  to  lay  His  head. 

Systems  which  are  falling  to  pieces  to-day 
fall  in  the  sunlight  of  this  mighty  command. 


1 64  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Problems  must  be  met,  which  grow  more 
complex  day  by  day,  because  we  dare  not 
risk  this  divine  truth.  Shall  our  Christian 
scholarship  halt  ?  A  true  scholar  knows  that 
every  delay  whets  the  sword  and  makes  it 
more  fatal  to  whomsoever  it  may  touch.  It 
is  said  that  Seward,  in  1858,  walking  with  a 
companion  from  the  Capitol,  where  flags  were 
flying  to  celebrate  the  birth  of  Washington, 
pointed  to  these  emblems  so  splendid  in  the 
sun  and  said  scornfully  :  '*  Look  at  those  flags 
— and  yet  they  talk  of  disunion  !  "  He  saw 
not  the  great  law  of  expiation.  He  had  for- 
gotten that  some  one  must  pay  for  the  com- 
promises in  the  Constitution.  Even  Webster 
called  the  abolition  movement  "a  rubadub 
agitation."  These  represented  a  scholarship 
which  had  not  gone  deep  as  great  principles, 
but  had  been  content  with  the  orations  of 
Cicero,  rather  than  the  profounder  lines  of 
conscience. 

Our  social  problem  will  not  vanish  because 
vulgar  men  howl  and  because  illustrious  men 
whisper.  "  The  wisdom  from  above  is  first 
pure,  then  peaceable." 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     165 

I  readily  grant  it  will  be  a  difficult  task  for 
even  our  most  pretentiously  religious  scholar- 
ship, which  has  silently  let  certain  men  pile 
up  wealth  upon  false  foundations,  and 
avoided  the  unpleasant  lower  classes  for  so 
long,  to  get  the  ear  of  either  of  these.  A 
socialist  confronts  our  conservative  scholar- 
ship, which  has  had  faith  in  man,  and  he 
tells  us :  "  You  have  known  that  social 
economy  to  be  true  or  lasting  must  be  in 
harmony  with  the  nature  of  things  ;  you 
have  known  that  Man  is  that  one  goal 
towards  which  everything  in  nature  and 
life  has  run  ;  you  have  been  singing  with 
Dryden  : 

"  'From  harmony,  from  heavenly  harmony 
The  universal  frame  began  : 
From  harmony  to  harmony 
Through  all  the  compass  of  the  notes  it  ran, 
The  diapason  closing  full  with  Man, ' 

You  know  also  that  the  law  which  strengthens 
only  the  strong,  even  when  the  man  who 
holds  the  fortune  puts  it  as  the  law  of  the 
universe,  is  not  in  harmony  with  Man's  best 
hope.     It   unmans  both  the  strong  and  the 


1 66  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

weak.  It  makes  one  a  brute,  the  other  a 
machine.  All  this  you  have  known,  and  yet 
you  have  been  silent.  Why  has  this  truth 
not  been  inserted  in  the  midst  of  tables  of 
statistics  and  reports  on  imposts  and  duties  ? 
Sismondi's  question  to  Ricardo  :  *  Is  wealth 
everything ;  is  man  nothing  ?  '  has  long  ago 
been  answered,  both  by  religion  and  scholar- 
ship. Why  have  you  not  spoken  it  ?  '  The 
starting-point,  as  well  as  the  object-point  of 
our  science,'  said  Roscher,  'is  Man.'  Why, 
then,  has  the  quality  of  the  goods  which  he 
would  make,  rather  than  the  fibre  of  his  soul 
and  the  weal  of  his  body,  been  made  the 
whole  topic  of  your  economy  ?  Ah  1  you 
have  been  cowardly,  when  you  ought  to  have 
spoken.     Be  silent  nowT 

"  'Tis  the  day  of  the  chattel,  web  to  weave  and 
corn  to  grind, 
Things  are  in  the  saddle  and  ride  mankind." 

A  well-fed  conservatism  also  often  objects 
to  what  is  called  dangerous  agitation  on  the 
part  of  scholars,  and  is  noisy  enough  about 
its  objections  to  remind  one  that  even  Erasmus 
was  moved  to  say  to  those  to  whom  Luther 


AND   THE  PRESENT   SOCIAL  PROBLEM     167 

was   but  a  demagogue :  "I  say   to  you  to 
scream  less,  and  to  think  more." 

God  knows  I  would  not  urge  the  coming 
ministry  of  my  Lord  to  a  quick  and  loyal 
acknowledgment  of  these  truths  and  their 
immediate  incarnation  in  you,  just  to  save  the 
day  and  win  respect  for  the  pulpit  in  all  the 
future.  Not  because  it  is  tactful,  shrewd  or 
just  prudential,  ought  you  to  live  a  life  spirit- 
ual enough  to  ally  you  with  this  inevitable 
reform.  The  Spiritual  Life  cannot  be  thus 
buckled  on,  because  it  has  a  battle  on  likely 
to  triumph  soon  in  other  hands,  if  you  do 
not  push  to  the  front.  I  trust  this  will  come 
by  peaceful  evolution :  but  heaven  knows 
that  in  our  latest  and  second  revolution  when 
chattel  slavery  was  the  issue,  American  Chris- 
tianity, along  with  American  scholarship,  was 
so  nearly  supine  and  unintelligent,  as  to  lift 
by  contrast  into  unforgetable  eminence  those 
pulpits  of  Christendom  which  were  awake 
and  valiant ;  and  our  failure  to  educate  the 
nation  North  and  South  through  a  higher, 
deeper  Spiritual  Life,  as  to  divine  values  of 
things    human,  accounts    for    the    frightful 


l68  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

inadequacy  of  the  so-called  solution  of  the 
race-problem.  First  of  all,  we  thought  we 
could  free  men  by  material  policies  made 
successful.  No  proclamation  of  emancipa- 
tion, backed  only  by  a  majority  and  a  sword, 
can  make  anybody  good  enough  to  deliver 
his  fellow  to  freedom  or  the  poor  fellow  him- 
self good  enough  to  take  it.  A  spiritualiza- 
tion  of  the  whole  problem,  by  an  inflow  of 
Christian  motive  upon  hearts  and  lives  of  all 
concerned  in  it,  must  still  be  ours  before  we 
have  even  begun  aright  with  this  matter. 

The  Christian  pulpit  lost  its  great  opportu- 
nity, and  will  yet  have  to  take  it.  Piety  and 
justice  must  some  day  be  at  one  on  this  afEair. 
In  such  a  case,  it  is  usually  the  pulpit,  unable 
for  lack  of  spiritual  vigour  to  be  entirely 
independent  of  the  opinion  and  apparent 
interest  of  the  majority,  which  objects  longest 
to  the  inevitable  progress  of  renewing  ideas 
in  and  through  minds  out  of  the  pulpit  and 
often  out  of  the  Church,  and  so  the  end  is 
that  the  influence  of  the  pulpit  and  Church 
appear  pitifully  small  in  the  hour  of  their 
victory.     Let  us  not  fight  our  cause's  better 


AND   THE   PRESENT  SOCIAL  PROBLEM     169 

orator,  if    we  must  decline  to  say  much  at 
present. 

Even  that  new  South,  rising  out  of  the  old, 
now  sees  that  her  best  friend  was  not  he  who 
cried,  "  Hang  Phillips  and  Yancey  together," 
but  rather  the  fearless  scholar  who  was  of 
nothing  so  sure  as  of  the  safety  of  righteous- 
ness. The  agitation  upon  us  is  Pentecost 
against  Babel-towers.  In  it  is  our  only  hope 
of  order.  The  capital  of  the  world  which 
most  protests  against  agitation,  either  through 
joy  or  dread  of  memories,  will  see  how  wealth 
needed  a  better  motive  for  its  production,  a 
truer  method  for  its  growth,  and  a  more 
genuine  security  for  its  existence  and  in- 
fluence, than  our  system  of  economics  fur- 
nishes. Wealth  will  repudiate,  some  day,  the 
religion  or  scholarship  which  does  not  now 
see  that  the  strong  sentiments,  the  deep  in- 
stincts of  the  human  soul,  on  which  stable  so- 
ciety rests  and  which  have  so  largely  been 
ruled  out  of  both  our  theories  and  practice, 
must  be  respected.  Our  scholarship  has  not 
forgotten  history.  We  want  a  Pentecostal 
faith  in  Christ's  idea  of  man.     It  is  simple. 


lyo  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

There  is  a  fatality  which  attends  all  cul- 
ture which  neglects  to  reckon  largely  on 
those  truths  which  need  no  acute  intellec- 
tual voyager  to  find  them.  Where  such  a 
scholarship  droops,  the  homelier  scholarship 
which  has  been  true  to  the  truths  nearest 
home — true  enough  to  trust  them — has 
builded  its  monument  in  a  reformed  church 
or  a  new  commonwealth.  In  his  great  poem, 
"  The  Dream  of  Gerontius,"  Cardinal  New- 
man has  written  the  words,  "It  is  the  very 
energy  of  thy  thought  which  keeps  thee 
from  thy  God."  Our  orthodox  rationalism 
in  theology  and  political  economy  is  our 
curse.  It  is  a  sign  of  unreality,  when  the  in- 
tellect speculates  in  the  presence  of  a  truth 
confessed,  but  all  involved  and  unpurposed. 
It  has  first  made  a  corpse  for  the  knife  of  its 
anatomy.  That  truth  lying  dead  is  a  warn- 
ing ;  the  next  truth  shuns  that  soul,  while 

"  The  intellectual  power  through  words  and  things 
Goes  sounding  on  its  dim  and  perilous  way." 

There  is  a  simplicity  of  practical  faith  in  the 
apprehended  truth  which  does  it ;  and  the  do- 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     1 7 J. 

ing  of  apprehended  truth  lies  at  the  bottom 
of  all  discovery  of  the  unapprehended.  That 
faith  in  the  Monk  of  Erfurt  launches  a  heroic 
life  upon  its  unsounded  deeps  and  begins  a 
reformation.  It  has  the  wisdom  of  a  child,  in 
the  presence  of  the  caution  of  an  Erasmus. 
That  faith  in  Savonarola  made  the  contem- 
poraries of  the  Medici  breathe  freely,  if  but  for 
an  hour,  an  atmosphere  sure  to  become  per- 
manent by  and  by.  That  faith  made  Henry 
Winter  Davis  refuse  to  remain  in  college  by 
the  help  of  the  money  realized  from  the  sale 
of  a  human  being — a  slave  set  to  his  share  in 
the  distribution  of  his  father's  property — clar- 
ified his  culture,  forbade  the  entrance  of  un- 
heroic  ideas  into  his  soul,  and  prepared  him 
for  days  in  which  he  should  come  hither  from 
the  South  to  say :  "  You  see  the  conflagra- 
tion from  a  distance  ;  it  blisters  me  at  my 
side."  These  men  are  not  the  preservatives 
of  dead  forms  bottled  and  duly  shelved ;  they 
are  conservatives  of  living  ideas.  We  need 
not  strain  for  the  needed  truth.  We  need 
only  to  be  true  and  truthful. 

What  a  far-reaching  culture  which  declines 


172  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

the  responsibility  of  realizing  the  ideals  which 
it  does  reverence,  and  trusting  the  truth  it 
does  confess,  has  missed,  comes  to  that 
deeper,  simpler  culture  which  reads  the  hu- 
man soul  and  is  faithful  to  every  truth  it  finds. 
The  commoner  angels  of  God  are  the  best  for 
us  when  we  are  wrong,  and  they  are  the 
hardest  to  entertain.  None  of  God's  more 
illustrious  ministers  of  grace  will  be  familiar 
with  us  so  long  as  we  simply  make  love  to 
their  fellows. 


A  few  strong  instincts  and  a  few  plain  rules 
Among  the  herdsmen  of  the  Alps  have  wrought 
More  for  mankind  at  this  unhappy  day 
Than  all  the  pride  and  intellect  of  thought." 


The  instinct  of  right  and  the  rules  of  justice 
come  with  no  cowering  forms  to  the  Christian 
scholar  for  protection  :  but  they  come  with  au- 
thority. Why  shall  he  doubt  them  ?  They 
say,  "  We  have  been  with  you  in  all  the  cen- 
turies of  which  you  have  read,  in  the  nature 
you  have  explored  and  in  the  soul  you  revere ; 
a  superficial  culture  has  left  our  side ;  the 
battle  and  the  issue  are  ours.     Shall  our  vie- 


AND  THE  PRESENT  SOCIAL  PROBLEM  1 73 

tory  be  yours  also?"  Just  now  it  is  said  : 
"  Ah,  this  is  not  the  Christian  scholar's  task 
or  fortune.  We  must  not  expect  great  en- 
thusiasms or  much  eloquence,  for  there  is  no 
crisis  for  which  men's  souls  are  to  be  trained." 
Always  are  those  men,  to  whom  life  is  both 
dream  and  duty,  informed  that  there  is  little 
at  present  for  them  to  do,  for  the  great  vic- 
tories are  all  won. 

We  have  been  assured  that  when  Charles 
Sumner  came  into  the  United  States  Senate 
to  begin  his  most  practical  labours,  on  the 
day  upon  which  Henry  Clay  walked  out,  he 
was  met  by  Thomas  Benton,  who,  seeing  his 
genius,  lamented  that  there  was  no  great 
career  for  him.  Said  he  :  "  You  have  come 
upon  the  stage  too  late,  sir.  All  our  great 
men  have  passed  away.  Mr.  Calhoun,  Mr. 
Clay,  and  Mr.  Webster  are  gone.  Not  only 
have  the  great  men  passed  away,  but  the 
great  issues  too,  raised  from  our  form  of  gov- 
ernment and  of  deepest  interest  to  its  found- 
ers and  their  immediate  descendants,  have 
been  settled,  sir.  The  last  of  these  was  the 
National  Bank,  and  that  has  been  overthrown 


174  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

forever.  Nothing  is  left  you,  sir,  but  puny 
sectional  questions  and  petty  strifes  about 
slavery  and  fugitive  slave  laws,  involving  no 
national  issues." 

There  are  Bentons  saying  this  to  the  young 
Sumners  of  the  pulpit  to-day.  I  would  not 
have  you  debaters,  but  I  would  have  you  seek 
to  rejuvenate  social  conscience  by  develop- 
ing the  Spiritual  Life  in  the  presence  of  Jesus 
Christ.  That  alone  will  meet  the  facts — for 
men  are  wrong  and  need  not  so  much  new 
laws  as  a  new  law  of  love — each  man  for 
himself.  This  preaching  alone  will  avail,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  all  the  past  is  trembling 
in  the  balance  to  the  man  who  truly  sees  the 
present,  and  that  the  next  problem  is  always 
greater,  as  its  solution  shall  be  grander,  than 
the  last.  Our  faith  is  that  only  an  unyield- 
ing idealism,  now  fortified  by  the  testimony 
of  culture  and  the  presence  of  Christ  in  the 
souls  of  His  brothers,  can  bless  the  most 
realistic  toiler  on  these  shores.  The  deeper 
and  darker  the  materialism  of  the  hour,  the 
greater  the  triumphs  of  the  light  which  shall 
conquer  it.     Shall  not  the  Christian  ministry, 


AND   THE   PRESENT   SOCIAL   PROBLEM     1 75 

trained  in  these  halls,  lead  in  the  education 
of  the  conscience  of  Humanity  ?  God  grant 
that  it  may  be  so,  and  let  all  the  people  say : 
Amen! 


LECTURE  V 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND 
ITS  DETERMINATIONS 
AND     DELIVERANCES 


LECTURE  V 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND  ITS 

DETERMINATIONS  AND 

DELIVERANCES 

ONE  of  the  richest  discoveries  which  a 
minister  makes,  let  us  hope  early, 
but  it  may  be  late  in  his  career,  is 
that  his  emancipation  from  what  he  should 
not  be  and  should  not  do  as  a  minister,  is 
attained  in  the  emancipation  granted  to  his 
whole  nature,  when  he  is  delivered  over,  soul, 
body,  and  spirit,  to  God  Who  alone  is  his 
Being's  satisfaction  and  glory. 

The  question  immediately  comes,  after  such 
a  statement  as  I  have  made,  and  I  can  see  it 
upon  some  lips  at  this  moment:  "Would 
you,  if  you  were,  for  example,  addicted,  for 
whatever  reason  in  your  nature  or  your  train- 
ing, to  merely  logical  processes,  seek  to  be 
delivered  from  this,  by  seeking  first  and  all 
the  while  a  deeper  and  broader  spiritual  life?" 
I  answer  at  once,  unhesitatingly,  "  Yes''  and 
179 


l8o  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

I  would  say  to  any,  who,  at  the  other  ex- 
treme, suffer  on  the  score  of  partialness,  be- 
cause they  have  not  the  logical  faculty  fairly 
developed,  and  are  therefore  likely  to  be  not 
logical,  and  who,  of  course,  wish  to  escape 
from  all  mere  patchwork  and  disorderliness 
in  thinking — I  would  say  to  them  also :  Do 
only  one  thing,  first  and  all  the  while.  "Seek 
first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteous- 
ness, and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you."  "  His  righteousness"  or  rightness  ! — 
it  is  all  personal.  The  truest  explanation  of 
this  urgency  that,  first  and  all  the  time,  we 
should  seek  the  kingdom  of  God,  is  made 
evident  in  the  fact  that  nothing  can  be  really 
added  "to  you  " — that  is,  to  your  personality 
— until  you  are  in  a  condition  of  mind  for  re- 
ceiving additions  through  your  spiritual  life. 
I  mean  the  condition  of  mind  which  comes 
of  seeking  a  kingdom,  not  of  your  own,  and 
still  less  of  the  world,  but  primarily  and  eter- 
nally "  of  God."  Any  addition  that  will  issue 
in  a  completion  of  your  powers,  as  a  minister, 
will  be  "  to  you,"  personally,  and  not  to  your 
powers  as  such. 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES     l8l 

Softly  and  surely  rising  beneath  our  ca- 
reened faculties,  slowly,  and  even  caressingly, 
beneath  both  bow  and  stern  that  cannot  move 
themselves  away  from  the  wet  sand  upon 
which  many  a  man  has  drifted,  the  tide  of  a 
true  spiritual  life  rises.  It  is  amazing  how 
quickly  our  useless  sails  unfurl  themselves  in 
the  fresh  possibility  of  movement.  Our  rust- 
ing machinery  plies  its  mechanisms  with  the 
ocean  tide  below,  while,  away  from  rock  and 
shoal,  our  faculties  for  thinking  the  right  thing 
and  saying  the  right  thing  and  doing  the  right 
thing  glide  into  the  open  sea,  welcoming  any 
storm  and  daring  any  solitude  of  distance,  in 
order  that  we  who  are  children  of  the  Infinite 
may  have  an  infinite  course  and  may  reach 
at  last  our  infinite  goal.  Such  is  the  min- 
ister's experience,  partially  and  briefly  hinted 
in  this  one  experience  of  being  delivered  unto 
God. 

Our  capital  mistake  in  these  matters  usually 
is  this — that  we  try  to  get  ourselves  afloat, 
spiritually, — that  is,  we  try  to  get  the  whole 
of  our  nature  moving  out  to  sea, — by  intel- 
lectual activity  alone ;  and  that  is,  by  work- 


l82  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

ing  certain  machinery  inside  of  us,  if  we  are 
big  enough  to  have  much  machinery,  or,  in 
the  case  of  a  sailboat,  by  hoisting  sail  or 
essaying  some  other  kind  of  lofty  activity 
which  is  all  the  more  pitiable  when  one  sees 
that  the  hull  of  the  boat  is  still  on  the  wet 
sand.  The  truth  is,  intellectual  activity  is 
never  so  expensive,  or  foolish,  as  when  we 
are  thus  beached,  and  there  is  no  Spiritual 
Life  about  us  or  in  us  ;  and,  therefore,  nothing 
is  moving  except  the  remote  edges,  perhaps, 
of  a  retreating  tide. 

Now,  I  am  not  going  to  enter  into  the 
question  as  to  how  much  and  how  constantly 
we  have  to  depend,  in  this  matter,  on  the 
behaviour  of  the  tide  itself.  You  say  we  can- 
not make  tides  and  that  Spiritual  Life  is  of  the 
grace  of  God  ;  that  the  "  wind  bloweth  where 
it  listeth,"  and  that  we  cannot  create  for  our- 
selves a  satisfactory  Spiritual  Life  any  more 
certainly  or  easily  than  we  can  lift  ourselves 
by  our  boot-straps — all  of  which  is  an  interest- 
ing exhibit  of  half  the  facets  of  a  gem-like 
truth. 

I  shall  not  ask  to  fasten  your  interests  to 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    183 

the  Other  side  of  this  truth,  with  its  equally- 
engaging  facets,  and  insist  upon  what  may 
seem  an  extreme  view  of  a  man's  power 
over  himself,  though  we  all  agree  that  the 
start  is  primarily  with  God  in  the  increase  of 
any  spiritual  life.  I  have  only  to  say  that 
there  is  no  deliverance  for  the  minister  from 
intellectualism,  and  from  the  diversity  of 
other  and  all  bondages  and  Hmitations,  which 
scarcely  share  the  dignity  of  this  word, — 
none  that  is  not,  first  of  all,  and  all  the  way 
through,  a  deliverance  by  means  of  a  rising 
and  dominant  tide  of  Spiritual  Life. 

I  have  touched  one  exemplary  problem. 
Let  us  give  attention  to  more  of  the  deliver- 
ances which  we  need.  An  experienced  spir- 
ituality of  life  will  make  mere  intellectual 
formulae  crack  and  snap,  as  did  the  fire  lit  by 
the  pioneers  in  the  woods,  to  clear  the  soil  for 
the  first  plowing.  It  was  the  only  healthy 
thing  to  do.  Lighting  a  flame  was  prog- 
ress ;  and  yet  it  was  the  way  of  conservatism 
to  get  the  land  ready  for  plowing.  Such  is 
the  true  order  of  Spiritual  Life.  But  these  fires 
are  of  the  Spirit.    Forget  my  figure  of  speech, 


l84  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

and  note  how  often  one's  total  life  Godward, 
that  is  his  Spiritual  Life,  saves  his  mental 
operations  from  misleading  himself  and  his 
people.  Is  it  Dr.  Bayley,  in  the  city  of  my 
first  parish,  holding  in  clearest  intellectual 
light,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  doctrines  of  lim- 
ited atonement  and  election  which  never 
seemed  so  cold  and  cruel  as  when  new-born 
souls  were  shouting  for  joy  all  around  him  ? 
What  was  the  divine  power  causative  of  a 
new  event  in  and  for  him  ?  It  was  the  new 
Spiritual  Life  of  the  man,  who  was  one  of  the 
most  acute  thinkers  I  ever  knew.  It  was 
lifting  him  out  and  away  from  anything  less 
gracious  than  the  creed  of  his  personal  ex- 
perience with  these  newly-named  children  of 
light. 

Rest  assured,  the  intellect  finally  comes 
around  and  arranges  its  formulse  in  accord- 
ance with  the  facts  of  Spiritual  Life.  Let  me 
speak  of  something  still  less  apparently  re- 
ligious. In  an  earlier  day,  our  pulpits  were 
training  strong  men,  especially  for  the  prac- 
tice of  the  law,  through  the  influence  of  cer- 
tain pulpits  in  the  Middle  West,  notably  two 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES     185 

pulpits  in  Indianapolis,  by  masterful,  logical 
presentations  of  truth.  The  Indianapolis  bar 
was  known  for  twenty-five  years  over  America 
as  a  singularly  strong  body  of  practicing  law- 
yers. It  was  easily  observed  that  the  biog- 
raphy of  these  men  had  to  do  with  the  pulpit 
methods  of  at  least  two  powerful  preachers ; 
and  I  have  often  heard  President  Harrison, 
who  was  one  of  the  young  men  thus  influ- 
enced, recite  the  histories  of  five  great  law- 
yers in  the  middle  states,  who  had  learned 
to  reason  in  straight  lines,  through  the  train- 
ing received  from  the  pulpits  to  which  their 
young  manhood  had  come  admiringly.  Now 
this  is  a  very  desirable  result — namely,  to  have 
taught  men  to  be  logical ;  and  it  is  especially 
desirable  that  young  lawyers  should  learn  to 
reason  in  straight  lines. 

But  there  is  another  side  of  it.  The  emi- 
nent result  of  these  men  of  the  pulpit  never 
came  to  these  young  men,  even  as  intellec- 
tual force  and  orderliness  of  mind,  until,  by 
their  own  confession,  in  the  tide  of  a  new 
Spiritual  Life,  each  of  them  was  lifted  forth, 
and  an  oceanic  breadth  and  depth  of  Chris- 


l86  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

tian  experience  was  granted  unto  each  which 
made  the  preacher's  exercitations  in  the  most 
logical  and  theological  statements  seem, 
indeed,  valuable  anchors  and  redoubtable 
cables,  or  the  staples  to  which  they  were  at- 
tached. And  this  was  all  ?  I  know  you  say 
that  this  "  all "  is  very  much.  Yet  the  human 
race  does  not  depend  so  seriously  upon  the 
logic  of  its  faith,  as  upon  the  enthusiasm  and 
loyalty  begotten  thereof.  Happily,  often- 
times, and  especially  may  the  remark  be 
made  when  we  think  of  many  impossible 
but  apparently  logical  theological  systems, 
"  man  is  a  very  illogical  animal."  He  is  safe 
only  when  he  is  spiritual  in  his  life.  It  was 
not  "  alir  These  men  were  made  not  only 
logical,  but  more — they  were  made  spir- 
itually-minded. 

Politicians  arise  upon  the  stump  to  prove 
to  us  how  the  country  will  logically  go  to 
ruin,  if  certain  principles  are  adopted  by  a 
vote  for  the  party  who  has  written  them  in 
the  platform.  Lo !  that  very  party  succeeds 
in  the  election ! — and  Lo !  also,  the  country 
does   not   go  to   pieces.     It  is  not  because 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES     187 

the  speaker  was  not  logical  in  his  warning 
speech,  and  not  primarily  because  the  people 
were  anti-logical,  but  because  the  principles 
written  in  the  platform  were  only  abstract. 
We  see  what  occurred  then  occurring  now. 
At  once,  a  great  deep  life — that  is,  the  ex- 
perienced patriotism  of  the  people  comes  in, 
logic  or  no  logic,  like  a  tide.  That  gracious 
tide  attends  to  the  business  of  freeing  a 
thousand  helpless  ships  whose  going  forth 
is  an  event  filled  with  benefit.  The  convoy 
is  orderly,  by  an  instinct  or  an  unnamed  im- 
pulse. The  argosy  moves  on.  The  country 
is  safe. 

Now,  on  the  other  hand,  another  weakness 
of  the  pulpit  from  which  the  true  Spiritual 
Life,  and  that  alone,  is  most  likely  to  save  us. 
is  sensationalism.  I  will  say  more,  and  that 
I  believe  the  only  thing  that  can  save  us 
from  a  very  disorganizing,  and  withal  de- 
lightsome weakness  in  the  direction  of  senti- 
mentalism,  is  powerful  Spiritual  Life.  Intellec- 
tually alone,  you  cannot  down  the  emotions. 
They  ought  not  to  be  downed.  They  ought 
to  be  blended  with  streams  of  thought  and 


I88  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

currents  of  will.  A  single  tear  will  wash 
away  an  Alp  of  the  cooler  brain.  Many  a 
minister,  especially  in  our  time,  is  quite 
aware  that  the  recoil  from  our  over-intel- 
lectualism  in  demonstration  of  the  truth  of 
dogmas,  is  executing  now  its  worst  judg- 
ment upon  the  Church,  which  has  too  long 
kept  the  heart  out  of  pulpit  and  pew — so 
long,  indeed,  that,  now  returning,  the  heart 
is  making  havoc  of  things  here  and  there 
with  an  overflow  of  sentiment  which  is  not 
miscalled  sentimentalism.  The  same  thing 
which  has  occurred  in  certain  developments 
of  our  poetry  has  occurred  in  the  pulpit.  A 
disposition  to  take  only  the  little  crippled 
children  and  make  them  walk  in  their  most 
difficult  hours  before  us,  and  an  almost  in- 
satiate desire  to  exhibit  the  unfortunatenesses 
of  certain  classes  of  society  for  a  commercial, 
though  often  honest  literary  end  ;  indeed,  the 
whole  painful  and  overwrought  effort  to  make 
people  cry  because  there  are  so  many  things 
in  the  world  to  cry  about,  has  taken  the  place 
of  that  "  deep,  sad,  still  music  of  humanity," 
which   has  ever  honoured  sorrow  wherever 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    189 

it  has  its  ministries,  and  always  hastens  to 
the  side  of  pain  wherever  it  quivers  nobly, 
and  may  never  rest,  until  this  world  of  tears 
has  been  forgotten  in  the  glory  of  a  world 
where  "God  shall  wipe  all  tears  away  from 
their  eyes,  and  there  shall  be  no  sighing, 
neither  any  more  pain."  Whatever  dangers 
there  may  have  been  in  other  times  from 
logic,  it  was  as  nothing  to  our  danger  to-day 
from  the  lacrymose  unctuousness  that  spills, 
and  the  apparently  profitable  sentimentalism 
which  infects  the  pulpit  message. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  such  peril  in  evan- 
gelism as  this ;  and  ours  is  an  age  in  which 
we  have  brought  in  the  evangelist  at  such  a 
time  and  for  such  a  reason  that  our  supposed 
extremity  of  need  cannot  well  keep  him  teth- 
ered to  the  accumulated  wisdom  of  the  Chris- 
tian pulpit.  Having  concluded  that  the  evan- 
gelist, as  such,  is  not  a  person  whom  we 
really  desire  in  our  pulpit,  and  yet  being 
desperately  conscious  that  a  certain  work  must 
be  done  by  somebody,  we,  therefore,  have 
been  often  led  to  imitate  his  methods,  to  obtain 
his  results. 


I90  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

I  am  bound  to  say  that  nothing  has  more 
hopelessly  anchored  our  ship,  which  has  al- 
ready been  beached  because  there  is  too  little 
Spiritual  Life  under  it,  and  anchored  it  where 
the  sands  which  are  the  sport  of  every  wind 
are  filling  it,  than  the  usual  pulpiteering — for 
I  cannot  call  it  preaching — which  works  with 
these  motives  and  methods. 

There  are  very  few  James  Whitcomb 
Rileys  in  the  pulpit,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
who  can  stop  with  one,  or  two,  or  even  a 
dozen  "  Little  Orphan  Annies."  I  have  never 
known  a  man  who  took  himself  for  an  Eugene 
Field  in  the  pulpit  who,  having  succeeded 
with  one  "Little  Boy  Blue",  did  not  find 
other  litde  boys  of  other  colours  who  were 
passing  away  so  rapidly  that  the  people  in 
the  congregation  begin  to  feel  much  as  per- 
sons do  who  read  the  special  column  in  most 
newspapers  now  devoted  to  the  humours  and 
hysterics  of  humanity.  There  grows  up  in 
the  mind  of  the  people,  under  such  tutelage, 
a  power  which  at  the  first  is  amazed  at  this 
recognition  of  suffering  and  sorrow,  but  it 
has  gone  to  the  theatre  so  often,  and  it  has 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES     I9I 

contented  itself  with  doing  nothing  but  to 
weep  in  the  presence  of  described  grief  so 
frequently,  that  now,  at  length,  it  just  content- 
edly lies  on  the  wet  sand,  fastened  more  se- 
curely by  the  rope  of  enervating  convention- 
alities which  have  made  it  gritty  with  the 
sands  themselves. 

A  certain  series  of  stories  is  rife — a  series, 
each  of  which  get  a  pious  twang,  associated 
with  their  rendering,  which  is  almost  as- 
sured of  success  in  bringing  tears  to 
an  audience,  and  for  these  same  reasons. 
They  may  be  compared  to  a  like  series 
used  in  the  generation  earlier  even  than 
ours  ;  and  any  thoughtful  man,  who  will  thus 
compare  them,  will  be  shocked  at  the  desola- 
tions which  he  knows  must  have  been 
wrought,  age  succeeding  age,  by  the  woeful 
melodramatist  in  the  pulpit.  The  real  diffi- 
culty to  be  met  is  found  in  the  lack  of  spirit- 
ual life.  A  man  will  be  as  logical  as  he 
ought  to  be — that  is,  his  logic  will  be  like  the 
articulation  of  bones,  which  have  been  de- 
scribed as  furnishing  opportunity  for  flesh 
and  blood  to  become  beautiful  and  sublime, 


192  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

eloquent  and  musical — if  he  is  living  such  a 
holy  life  that  the  wholeness  of  his  nature  is 
strongly  permeated  with  God.  A  man  will 
be  as  tender  as  he  ought  to  be,  if  his  heart 
and  head  are  so  unified  in  a  common  expe- 
rience that  his  intellectual  life  is  all  suffused 
with  emotion,  as  the  brain  is  irrigated  with 
blood,  and  his  emotional  life  is  all  guided  by 
intelligence,  though  not  restrained  by  any 
mere  processes  of  reasoning.  Why  men 
should  look  elsewhere,  to  have  this  miracle 
of  unification  accomplished  within  them  ex- 
cept in  the  Spiritual  Life,  I  cannot  say.  Truly 
says  one  master,  "  The  heart  has  reasons  that 
the  reason  can  never  know."  And  as  truly  we 
are  told,  "  If  a  man  does  not  sometimes  lose 
his  reason,  he  has  no  reason  to  lose."  So 
also  it  may  be  said,  upon  the  other  side,  in 
full  recognition  of  the  fact  that  "  the  heart  is 
the  best  theologian,"  that  there  is  nothing 
more  needed  than  to  love  God  "  with  all  the 
mindP  Without  a  life  of  deep  and  quicken- 
ing thought,  the  emotional  will  run  off  with 
everything  and  wear  one  out.  We  must  not 
fail  to  do  what  we  are  asked  to  do  by  an 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES     1 93 

American  philosopher  :  "to  eHminate  unnec- 
essary emotions."  We  have  enough  neces- 
sary ones,  if  we  are  true  ministers  of  God  to 
men. 

One  thing  we  must  know.  The  preacher's 
sermons  will  come  out  of  the  preacher's  life, 
or  they  will  not  be  sermons.  They  may  be 
essays  with  texts  provided  as  mottoes,  exer- 
cises in  public  speaking  with  the  material  of 
religion  as  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter. 
If  they  become  only  pious  declamation,  or 
excited  colloquy,  issued  forth  when  and  where 
the  minister  knows  no  one  dare  say  a  word 
or  is  expected  to  ask  a  question  save  those 
of  himself  to  which  he  has  provided  all 
answers,  the  cause  of  the  effect  is  himself.  If 
his  life  is  so  small  that  it  can  express  itself  in 
terms  so  that  he  succeeds  only  logically,  his 
sermons  will  be  theological  or  sociological 
addresses.  If,  on  the  contrary,  his  life  is  such 
as  can  express  itself  fully  only  in  emotion  or 
sensation,  his  personal  lack  of  wholeness,  of 
integrity,  will  drown  truths,  in  themselves  im- 
mortal, in  his  poor  but  frequent  lacrymosities. 
To  save  himself,  let  his  life  be  utterly  lost  in 


194  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

the  life  of  God.  Then  none  of  these  things, 
which  so  repulse  the  manliness  of  our  age, 
can  happen  in  his  pulpit. 

I  hope  none  of  you  will  think  that  I  am 
mentioning  things  unworthy  of  your  atten- 
tion,— God  help  you ! — only  He  may  help 
you,  if  they  seem  to  be  small — things  from 
which,  I  am  sure,  nothing  but  the  Spiritual 
Life  at  its  completest  and  intensest  can  free 
any  of  us.  Almost  every  one  perceives  the 
large  things  he  does,  or  the  things  which  get 
into  his  methods  and  make  him  a  consciously 
weaker  man  than  he  ought  to  be.  We  agree 
that  we  ought  to  get  clear  of  them,  some- 
how. Nothing  but  the  Spiritual  Life  will  ac- 
complish this  for  us.  Let  me  assure  you, 
also,  that  it  takes  a  most  intense  Spiritual  Life 
to  burn  out  of  a  man  the  little  pests  of  his 
ministries. 

We  may  wisely  remember  Angelo's  word  : 
"  Perfection  is  made  up  of  trifles,  but  perfec- 
tion itself  is  no  trifle."  We  are  amazed  and 
awed  at  these  so-called  negative  trifles,  when 
they  lay  waste  the  princely  things  of  the 
ministry,  as  they  do  oftentimes.     From  these 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES     I95 

we  must  be  delivered.  "  The  litde  foxes  that 
spoil  the  vines  "  are  more  to  be  feared,  if  one 
is  growing  grapes,  than  the  lion  and  bear 
which  are  probably  not  in  our  neighbourhood, 
for  the  very  reason  that  we  are  too  beset  with 
what  we  call  our  small  enemies. 

The  minister's  views  of  himself  and  others 
are  made  proportional,  only  in  the  Spiritual 
Life.  This  is  one  of  its  determinations.  The 
deliverances  follow. 

No  one  can  ever  doubt  that  what  is  known 
as  self-conceit  has  its  antidote  only  in  the 
Spiritual  Life.  There  is  nothing  that  a  minis- 
ter needs  more  than  self-reverence,  with  self- 
knowledge  and  self-control.  One  of  the 
wisest  of  poets  has  well  said  :  "  These  three 
alone  lead  life  to  sovereign  power." 

Emerson  has  not  over-preached  the  rever- 
ence one  ought  to  have  for  one's  own  soul, 
and  many  have  demonstrated  its  fruitfulness 
in  character  and  good  deeds.  But  all  true 
reverence  of  one's  soul  is  opposed  to  self- 
conceit.  To  revere  one's  self  is  the  conse- 
quence of  obeying  the  precept:  "Revere 
God  I  "     He  makes  the  soul  grand. 


196  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

*'  Revere  thy  soul 
Fetch  thine  eye 
Up  to  the  manners  of  the  sky.' 


One  is  never  delivered  fro jn  himself,  until 
he  is  delivered  iiito  the  hands  of  Almightiness. 
The  all-wisdom  must  swallow  up  our  efforts 
and  experiences  at  being  wise,  or  we  shall  be 
the  most  foolish  of  coxcombs. 

Probably  egotism  never  flings  so  dismal  a 
shadow,  as  in  the  case  of  the  minister.  The 
ministerial  measurements  are  so  mountain- 
ous ;  our  sun,  in  the  case  of  self-conceit,  is 
such  a  flame  that,  when  the  light  falls  upon 
one's  back,  the  shadow  which  it  casts  is  deep 
with  darkness  and  stretches  afar,  haunting 
the  ways  of  progress  with  its  gloom,  and  com- 
pelling one's  eyes  to  see  everything  through 
the  thickness  and  dolor  of  one's  projected 
self.  The  greater  a  man  is  by  nature,  the 
longer  and  thicker  the  shadow  he  then  casts. 
Self-conceit  is  something  other  than  John 
Adams'  magnificent  self-respect,  or  John 
Milton's  confidence  in  the  superiority  of  his 
faculties,  or  the  conscious  grip  upon  his  own 
faculties  which  made  Leonardo  able  to  say 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    197 

truthfully:  "I  will  undertake  any  work  in 
sculpture,  in  marble,  in  bronze,  or  in  terra 
cotta — likewise  in  painting  I  can  do  as  well 
as  any  man,  be  he  who  he  may." 

Our  self-reverence,  of  which  I  have  spoken 
as  self-conceit,  is  too  often  the  reverence  for 
the  appearance  of  one's  self,  not  2.^  a  redeemed 
son  of  God,  and  one  honoured  by  his  heavenly 
Father,  by  being  called  upon  to  minister  unto 
men,  with  respect  to  the  mightiest  of  all  the 
precious  things  in  the  universe.  This  pest 
abides  in  our  own  estimate  as  to  what  God 
had  to  do  with,  not  in  our  estimate  of 
zvhat  God  has  done  ivith  poor  and  recalcitrant 
material.  Self-respect  roots  itself  in  God, 
not  in  us  ;  in  the  artist,  not  the  stone  He 
touches  with  His  power  and  grace.  Because 
we  have  it  not,  we  cringe  and  fawn  and 
compromise.  The  authoritative  note  which 
manhood  in  its  experience  with  truth,  and 
God  Who  is  the  author  of  all  truth,  creates,  is 
wanting  in  us.  So,  the  music  falters  and 
lacks  a  coherency  of  movement,  because  there 
is  not  conviction  of  one's  right  to  utter  the 
interior  experiences  of  a  humble  child  of  God. 


198  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

Only  these  experiences  make  this  child 
of  God  a  minister  unto  the  other  children  of 
the  heavenly  Father.  Not  for  the  sake  of  dis- 
covering this  note  valuable,  and,  indeed,  in- 
dispensable, as  it  certainly  is  to  the  preacher, 
should  we  start  out  upon  the  hopeless  task 
of  creating  reverence  for  ourselves.  We  can 
pray,  and  we  must  pray,  that  God  will  so 
humble  "  us  under  His  mighty  hand,"  that, 
consequentially,  as  the  apostle  seems  to  hint, 
we  may  "  be  exalted  in  due  time."  When 
that  exaltation  comes,  it  will  be  the  result  of 
an  inflow  of  the  divine  life  upon  our  heated 
and  blossomless  desert,  which  has  stretched 
itself  so  far  and  so  long  under  a  glaring  sun. 
Its  very  baldness  and  aridity  generate  the 
consciousness  that  it  needs  defense.  This 
self-consciousness  becomes  desperate  in  self- 
conceit.  The  interests  of  such  a  life  must 
ever  be  outside  itself.  Its  own  process  of 
living  will  be  interesting,  only  when  the  seeds 
are  bursting  beneath  the  soil  and  the  roots 
are  springing  everywhere,  and  the  tall 
grasses  sway  in  the  wind  or  the  harvest  gold 
is  gathered  from  stalk  and  stem.     Sunlight 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    199 

and  rain,  dew-fall  and  the  enriching  air, 
fertilizing  with  viewless  winds  wherever  they 
touch — this  additioji  from  without,  which  has 
been  assimilated  as  it  came  into  the  life 
beneath,  once  so  hopeless,  has  kindled  an 
upward  feeling  and  yearning.  The  more 
one  then  has  from  without  himself,  which  has 
interested  him  gloriously  to  this  result,  the 
more  one  grows  interested  in  the  things 
above.  Thus  his  deliverence  from  himself 
completes  itself  in  his  ever-completing  Spirit- 
ual Life. 

Perhaps  the  most  galling  self-conceit  is  not 
that  which  rattles  its  chain  in  the  personal 
pronoun  used  in  beginning  sentences — sen- 
tences whose  end  has  to  do  with  the  eternity 
and  infinity  of  God,  yet  are  throughout  in- 
fected with  the  monosyllable  "  I."  They  go 
on,  rehearsing  experiences  of  the  soul,  which 
are  either  too  shallow  or  too  deep  and  too 
sacred  ever  to  be  spoken  before  men,  betimes 
insinuating  among  the  brethren  a  complaint 
that  one  is  not  appreciated  and  honoured  as 
he  ought  to  be,  grasping  at  every  moment  or 
platform   or  vacant-eyed   crowd   to  publish 


200  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

one's  self  forth.  Heaven  and  earth  know  that 
this  sort  of  egotism  is  galling  enough,  even 
if  the  man  does  not  know  that  he  wears  a 
chain.  But  the  egotism  which  cuts  through 
the  skin  and  muscle  and  nerve,  until  the  soul 
is  threatened,  is  that  which  has  an  atheism 
all  its  own.  The  frightful  thing  that  happens, 
when  the  disease  of  egotism  is  upon  us,  is 
that  the  soul  finally  gets  willing  to  get  on  and 
to  go  on  without  God.  The  sanctuary  of 
prayer  must  be  vacated  by  the  minister,  for 
even  if  his  body  in  canonicals  may  appear 
regularly  at  each  service,  some  will  know, 
even  if  the  minister  does  not  know,  that  the 
minister's  soul  is  gone. 

In  such  a  case,  the  approaches  to  God,  in 
prayer,  will  be  like  roadways  across  which 
are  constantly  falling  the  trees  of  the  forest, 
— they  will  be  clogged  with  patronages  of  the 
eternal  God.  In  his  life  among  men,  there 
will  be  evident  so  litde  of  reliance  upon  the 
Almightiness  of  the  love  which  has  saved  and 
has  sought  to  sanctify  him,  that  not  any  self- 
reliance  of  the  high  and  noble  sort  shall  seem 
to  be  his,  but  his  people  will  discern  sadly  a  re- 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    20I 

liance  upon  that  shadow  of  himself,  which,  as 
only  the  strength  and  form  of  his  self-projec- 
tion, will  lead  him  into  those  particular  mis- 
takes and  blunders  which  may  scarcely  be 
distinguished  from  sins. 

A  man  will  not  save  himself  from  any  too 
large  estimate  of  his  own  powers  by  subtrac- 
tion. He  must  be  rescued  only  by  addition. 
The  more  he  makes  of  himself,  by  the  addi- 
tion of  inflowing  estimates  from  God's  grace 
with  him,  which  are  infinite  and  eternal  in 
their  nature  and  influences,  the  less  the  finite 
and  the  temporal  will  call  upon  him  for  self- 
measurement.  Among  his  brethren,  he  will 
move  with  such  an  air  and  style  of  the  ageless, 
that  he  cannot  be  posing  for  the  picture  gal- 
lery of  time.  Let  him  be  fulfilled,  or  filled 
full,  and  there  will  not  be  a  noise  like  that  of 
the  emptiness  betrayed  most  by  the  few  things 
which  are  shaken  within  it. 

Of  course,  young  men,  more  than  old  men, 
who  usually  have  had  the  experiences  which 
have,  as  we  say,  taken  the  conceit  out  of 
them,  are  likeliest  to  betray  a  certain  condi- 
tion of  egotism.     However,  there  are  notable 


202  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

exceptions  in  each  of  these  classes.  Some 
young  men  do  not  furnish  soil  for  the  self- 
propagation  of  extravagant  notions  as  to 
their  own  powers  and  the  impact  of  their  im- 
mediate exercise  in  the  future.  And,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  are  those  who,  the  older 
they  grow,  seem  at  least  to  defy  those  highly 
civilizing  influences  that  make  egotism  im- 
possible in  most  men. 

In  the  case  of  the  first,  there  is  that  humility 
which  invites  the  stream  of  God's  influence, 
as  the  low  and  rich  land  in  some  basin  be- 
tween mountain  ranges  invites  the  soft  flow- 
ing molten  snows  which  bring  down  from  the 
heights  untold  wealth  for  harvest-time.  God 
is  wonderfully  real  and  blessedly  known  to 
such  a  mind  which  soon  rejoices  in  feeding 
upon  Him  and  drinking  in  His  presence. 
There  is  no  nobleness  of  nature,  or  rectitude 
of  conduct,  or  preciousness  of  gift,  which  may 
be  denied  to  the  young  minister  who  is  so 
possessed  by  the  God  of  his  Being. 

I  cannot  stop  with  the  case  of  the  second. 

Let  each  of  us  know  that  all  hardness  of  na- 
ture and  immobility  of  spirit,  with  that  invol- 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    203 

untary  sharpness  which  refuses  to  take  a  thing 
except  on  its  own  edge,  come  when  the  man 
of  self-conceit,  having  overestimated  his  own 
powers  and  having  underestimated  the  resist- 
ances which  every  minister  ought  to  measure 
truly,  finds  himself  out  of  touch  with  any 
true  equation  of  his  forces  and  forcefulness 
which  must  come  from  the  irrigating  and 
softening  entrance  of  God  Himself  in  and 
upon  him.  Thinking  he  is  using  up  the 
maximum  power,  he  is  surprised  at  the  mini- 
mum of  eflfect  produced.  He  is  discouraged. 
And,  living  in  the  habit  of  finding  his  re- 
sources in  himself  only,  in  every  such  experi- 
ence as  this  particular  discouragement,  he 
assurantly  goes  to  himself  in  vain  for  re- 
sources ;  and  he  comes  out  of  it  all  only  a 
cynic. 

Our  underestimate  of  the  beauty  and  joy 
and  wholesomeness  of  the  world  and  life, 
and  especially  that  of  our  fellow  men,  is  the 
result  of  an  overestimate  of  one's  self.  The 
continuously  wearisome  experience  of  find- 
ing one's  overestimated  self  unable  to  accom- 
plish   anything    against  an   underestimated 


204  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

fact  or  force  of  resistance  is  most  deplorable 
in  the  minister.  This  throws  the  mental  ma- 
chinery out  of  gear,  and  makes  the  moral 
machinery  creak  and  wear  with  friction. 

Another  feature  of  this  self-conceit,  so  long 
as  we  are  trying  to  cure  it  with  anything  else 
but  a  nobler  and  more  resistless  Spiritual 
Life,  must  be  mentioned.  It  is  what  becomes, 
finally,  personal  falsity  in  measuring  truth. 
The  man  begins  speaking  to  his  congrega- 
tion, as  if  he,  and  not  the  truth  he  had  to 
speak  or  the  personal  Christ  whom  he  brings, 
is  to  do  the  work  in  them  and  for  them.  He, 
of  course,  wishes  to  be  victorious  over  igno- 
rance and  prejudice,  narrowness  and  wicked- 
ness,— whatever  it  may  be  which  must  be 
conquered  in  his  audience.  He  does  not 
warm  up  to  his  subject,  but  he  warms  up 
only  to  himself.  He  is  very  anxious  to  suc- 
ceed with  his  view  of  the  Truth,  for  his  own 
sake.  He  could  not  by  any  means  endure 
the  humiliation  of  having  the  truth  escape 
him,  and  suddenly  take  some  fairer  form 
than  he  had  dreamed,  as  the  truth  often  will 
do,  leaving  his  own  form  of  the  truth  un- 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    205 

adopted  and  its  virtues  unsung.  Really,  it 
is  not  the  fortune  of  truth,  or  the  fortune  of 
the  soul  which  is  longing  for  the  truth  at  its 
very  depths, — not  these  has  he  in  mind  ;  and, 
therefore,  with  whatever  facility  or  force  of 
speech  he  may  go  on  sermonizing,  he  is  not 
a  minister,  save  of  himself  and  his  views  of 
truth.  Never  is  he  so  little  a  minister  of 
the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

On  the  other  hand,  how  marvellously 
real  such  a  thing  as  truth  appears  to  be ; 
how  eloquently  on  inartistic  lips  the  very 
word  "  truth  "  rings  ;  how,  like  a  trumpet, 
with  its  commandment  of  reality,  his  mel- 
odiousness is  with  us,  when  a  man  of 
spiritual  equipment  and  acquirement  who 
we  feel  seeks  the  thing  he  cares  for 
most,  namely,  to  get  truth  and  the  soul 
and  mind  together,  says  anything  to  us! 
That  mighty  reverence  for  the  souls  of  his 
people ;  that  exceeding  exaltation  which  his 
almost  worshipping  mind  has  given  Truth  for 
Truth's  own  sake,  have  made  any  petty  self- 
confidence  impossible.  It  is  true,  then,  that 
the   man   grows   more  sublime  as  he  leans 


206  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

with  confidence  upon  the  Author  of  all  Truth. 
His  hands  grow  more  radiant  as  he  handles 
the  flashing  gem  called  Truth.  But  he  knows 
it  not.  He  has  been  saved  from  egotism,  by 
a  salvation  which  has  not  left  in  his  mind  a 
single  possibility  for  self-consciousness.  It 
is  Moses  again,  knowing  not  that  "  the  skin 
of  his  face  did  shine." 

Let  a  man  be  entirely  devoted  to  God. 
Let  him  literally  lose  himself,  as  the  stream 
loses  itself  in  the  ocean,  and  he  will  be  saved, 
even  from  many  smaller  evils. 

He  will  be  delivered  from  the  egotism  of 
persisting  in  a  certain  type  of  sermon,  in- 
stead of  so  revering  the  personality  of  his 
flock  that  their  natures  shall  give  a  reception 
to  all  his  instructions  and  appeals  to  them  as 
they  are  planned  to  their  form  and  capacity, 
much  as  the  inner  construction  of  a  vault 
gives  form  and  place  to  the  mass  of  coins 
with  which  it  is  filled. 

The  determination  which  a  deep  spiritu- 
ality of  life  will  make  in  us  will  deliver  us 
from  all  foolish  notions  as  to  the  inferiority 
of  certain  human  beings. 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    207 

Spiritual  Life,  alone,  will  refine  the  mind 
and  quicken  the  intelligence  to  a  point  and 
condition  of  discovery  quite  beyond  what  we 
can  think,  as  to  persons.  One  of  the  powers 
most  efficient  towards  the  completing  of  the 
true  Church  is  this  power  of  discovering  the 
goodness,  both  actual  and  possible,  of  very 
ordinary  people.  The  Church  of  America, 
especially,  must  remember  that  in  its  success 
it  shall  partake  of  the  success,  and,  therefore, 
it  must  share  the  methods,  of  democratic  and 
republican  institutions.  Lincoln's  saying  that 
"  God  must  love  common  people,  because  He 
made  so  many  of  them,"  ought  to  help  the 
minister  to  a  just  estimate  of  their  value  in 
church  life. 

It  is  astonishing  how  often  we  have  to 
resist  the  disposition  to  welcome  certain 
classes  to  our  communion  with  ecstasies 
which  are  not  so  pious,  as  the  shouts  from 
new-born  souls.  We  must  have  the  social 
ecstasies,  partly  because  we  cannot  have  the 
shouts,  for  souls  are  not  new-born  often  in  an 
atmosphere  where  the  emphasis  of  our  de- 
light is  put  upon  the  importance  of  what  we 


208  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

call  "strong  people"  for  the  Church.  The 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  carpenter's  son, 
does  not  necessarily  mean  the  Church  of 
impoverished  people  or  weak  people.  A 
great  deal  of  misquotation  has  come  to  the 
world  as  to  the  fact  that  "not  many  wise  or 
mighty  or  rich  were  called  "  to  the  member- 
ship of  the  early  Church  of  Christ.  The  ex- 
istence of  the  Church  of  Christ  does  not 
necessarily  mean  that  the  poor  should  know 
the  rich,  as  rich  ;  or  that  the  rich  should  know 
the  poor,  as  poor.  Indeed,  the  institutions 
of  His  religion  are  quite  contrary  to  this,  both 
in  their  temper  and  operation.  Nevertheless, 
it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  the  progress  of 
Christianity  towards  the  redemption  of  hu- 
man society,  without  seeing  the  Church  as 
largely  made  up  and  energized,  if  not  guided, 
from  its  earthly  side,  by  those  who  have  not 
an  extraordinary  amount  of  cash,  or  intellect, 
or  even  of  goodness  to  contribute.  Most  of 
the  love  which  makes  this  world  lovely,  as  it 
is,  is  the  love  which  is  silent,  at  least  not 
demonstrative.  Most  of  the  sweetness  that 
makes  this  world  as  little  sour  as  it  is,  is  the 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    209 

sweetness  of  humility.  Tlie  sacrifice  which 
enriches  most,  at  the  bottom  of  society,  our 
whole  humanity,  is  unstudied,  because  the 
one  who  makes  it  is  most  often  not  a  student 
at  all.  The  erosion  from  lofty  peaks  which 
creates  deep  valleys  comes  in  very  tiny  grains. 
That  minister  is  most  fortunate  who  has  an 
eye  for  those  inconsequential  and  shy  people 
who  hardly  dream  they  are  of  enough  ac- 
count to  be  immortal,  and  who  put  a  new 
meaning  in  George  Eliot's  words,  "  Oh,  may 
I  join  the  Choir  Invisible."  It  is  entirely 
true  of  them  that  they  are  so  self-effacing 
that  they  can  get  into  this  poem's  hospitality 
only  in  the  lines  containing  the  words, 

"  Those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 
In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence :  live 
In  pulses  stirred  to  generosity." 

There  we  must  stop,  although  our  deepest 
admiration  of  them  goes  much  farther, — we 
stop  because  they  have  no  "  deeds  of  daring 
rectitude"  ;  they  do  not  dare,  they  only  ven- 
ture. But  their  venture  is  that  of  the  timid 
violet  which  blooms  in  the  fence  corner,  not 
because  some  one  is  going  to  see  it  at  all, 


2IO  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

but  just  because  it  is  faithful  to  itself  and  its 
Maker.  These  people  screen  themselves,  not 
because  they  are  ashamed  of  themselves,  but 
largely  because  of  their  reverence  for  greater 
things,  and  their  unfaltering  altruism  that 
makes  them  live  "  in  scorn  for  miserable 
aims  that  end  with  self."  Shall  any  minister, 
who,  perforce,  is  their  minstrel,  shut  them 
out  of  poetry  and  a  religion  like  Christianity  ? 

Christian  preaching  takes  them  with  the 
eye-glance  of  Jesus ;  yet  they  have  no 
*'  thoughts  sublime  that  pierce  the  night 
like  stars."  Their  world  of  thought  is  a 
small  orb  and  their  mental  operations  are 
not  reported  in  constellations.  But  they 
come  into  the  poetic,  which  is  the  true  con- 
ception of  life  again,  when  we  think  of  them, 
who,  "with  their  mild  persistence,  urge  man's 
search  to  vaster  issues."  For,  weak  and 
simple  and  modest  as  they  are,  they  do 
give  a  tone  of  reality  and  an  impression  of 
the  worth  of  living  the  human  life,  creating 
the  most  wealth-giving  thing  we  have ; 
namely,  the  moral  atmosphere  of  our  world. 

I  believe  I  never  felt  such  a  sense  of  the 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    211 

fact  that  God  certainly  cannot  afford  to  let 
any  soul  come  to  the  end  of  its  life,  at  what 
we  call  death,  as  I  had,  when  one  of  these 
dear  little  women,  who  had  nothing  of  good- 
ness except  what  her  small  nature  might  de- 
velop or  entertain,  said,  "  Oh,  I  am  so  like 
nothing,  that  I  do  not  think  God  will  trouble 
Himself  about  a  place  for  me,  even  in  the 
many  mansions  Christ  has  prepared  I " 
Knowing  her  goodness,  and  that  the  whole 
of  her  little  self  expressed  itself  in  her  good- 
ness, I  felt  at  that  moment  that  if  her 
heavenly  Father  did  not  find  a  place  for  her, 
His  moral  universe  would  fall  to  pieces. 

Now,  to  get  this  eye  which  will  discover 
these  lowly  and  retiring  folk  and  give  to  them 
their  new  future,  and  the  Church  its  new  life, 
which  will  make  her  bloom  as  a  fence  corner 
will  bloom  with  violets,  though  no  one  passes 
that  way  in  the  course  of  the  spring  time,  we 
must  be  mastered  by  Jesus.  He  saw,  as  no 
one  else  has  seen,  because  He  saw  with  the 
divine  vision,  the  exceeding  preciousness  of 
little  things.  The  woman  who  brought  her 
mite  entered  into  the  world's  history  with  an 


212  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

introduction  by  Jesus  Himself,  Who  said, 
"  Wheresoever  this  gospel  shall  be  preached 
throughout  the  whole  world,  this  that  she 
hath  done  shall  be  told  for  a  memorial  of 
her."  He  vindicated  the  loyalty  and  com- 
pleteness of  her  little  gift. 

The  benediction  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world 
came  upon  a  fidelity  which  an  eye  for  the 
little  bignesses  of  our  existence  despises,  and 
which  an  eye  for  true  greatness  (which  is  ever 
of  quality,  not  of  quantity)  always  perceives. 
It  is  not  because  our  Church  would  come  to 
ruin  without  these  people  ;  it  is  not  because 
our  sanctuaries  would  be  deserted,  if  they 
were  absent ;  it  is  not  because  of  any  con- 
sideration, except  this — that  the  Spiritual  Life 
is  sufficing  in  this  one  thing — that  we  may 
take  it,  and  look  closely  to  find  if  you  and  I 
have  the  discernment  and  ability  which,  as 
you  see,  is  preeminently  Chrisdike,  to  place 
such  lowly  and  shrinking  humanity,  the  like 
of  that  widow  with  her  mite,  where  Jesus 
places  her,  in  the  history  of  human  civiliza- 
tion. 

Of  course,  Christianity  must  always  be  to 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    213 

US  a  religion  of  the  heart,  quite  as  much  as 
a  religion  of  the  head,  and,  therefore,  any 
experience  which  has  quickened  our  feehngs 
towards  worth  of  this  sort  is  worth  while, 
lest  we  shall  miss  seeing  these  people  of 
whom  I  speak.  Especially,  at  the  begin- 
nings of  every  soul's  career,  the  evidences 
that  attract  us  to  their  goodness  are  very 
slight,  for  the  highest  goodness  itself  is 
very  tiny,  both  in  aspect  and  appeal.  Such 
faith,  for  example,  is  indeed  as  a  mustard 
seed,  but  somehow,  by  the  processes  of 
growth,  it  fills  the  earth,  while  the  birds 
lodge  in  its  branches.  A  minister  must 
never  get  into  the  habit  of  doing  work  by 
such  wholesale  methods  that  he  neglects  one 
of  these  little  ones.  Neglect  is  cruelly  cold ; 
and  they  perish  in  the  cold.  "  It  were  better 
for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged  about 
his  neck  and  that  he  were  cast  into  the  midst 
of  the  sea,  than  that  he  should  offend  one  of 
these  little  ones "  by  the  chilliness  of  his 
forgetting  them,  or  never  having  been 
known  unto  them  as  Christ's  representative. 
The  smallest  man  will  do  the  largest  man 


214  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

more  good  than  the  largest  man  may  do  the 
smallest  man  in  this;  and  the  good  will  be 
in  proportion. 

I  assert  that  the  ministry  of  grace  to  our 
ordinary  humanity,  both  as  to  the  preacher 
or  pastor  who  is  likeliest  to  be  interested  in  ex- 
traordinary enterprises  and  showy  achieve- 
ments, is  of  the  highest  value.  Of  course,  all 
these  people  are  known  to  you  and  me  by 
one  signet.  It  is  more  than  the  hall-mark  of 
genius.  It  is  the  touch  of  God  meaning 
genuineness,  which  is  moral  genius  manifest. 
They  are  of  the  band  of  this  woman  who  had 
"  done  what  she  could."  A  sincere  minister 
will  find  their  sincerity.  A  minister,  who  is 
preeminent  in  grace  and  graciousness,  flow- 
ing from  an  indubitable  Spiritual  Life,  domi- 
nated and  supreme  by  the  presence  of  Christ 
within  him,  will  know  their  eminence.  Jesus' 
moral  earnestness  felt  the  moral  earnestness 
of  the  widow,  and  weighed  her  mite  by  the 
subtile  feelings  of  an  evangelic  brotherliness, 
which  ought  to  be  yours  and  mine.  By  the 
determinations  such  a  Spiritual  Life  will  fix 
in  us,  we  may  approach  the  sermon. 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    215 

In  the  method  I  have  chosen,  or  which, 
rather,  has  chosen  me,  I  am  treating  the  Spir- 
itual Life  as  a  reality,  more  than  a  theme,  but 
a  reality  to  be  estimated  in  view  of  the  pres- 
ent conditions  and  convictions  which  are 
somewhat  different  from  those  of  the  passing 
order  of  thought  and  life.  These  new  condi- 
tions, I  believe,  are  likeliest  to  remain,  be- 
cause they  are  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
Any  of  our  duties  as  preachers  ought  to  be 
affected  in  its  performance  by  the  gains  to 
ethical  power  and  theological  thought,  which 
have  come  from  the  gathered  wisdom  now 
acknowledged  as  orthodoxy,  or  at  least  as 
Truth,  probably. 

For  example,  in  the  matter  of  selecting  the 
text ;  while  it  is  true  that  the  text  must  select 
you,  and  must  seem  to  have  chosen  you  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world,  as  the  elect  per- 
son to  extract  illumination  and  instruction 
and  inspiration  from  its  unsuspected  treas- 
ures of  meaning,  it  is  also  true  that  it  will  be 
selected  from  a  Bible  which  is  looked  upon  by 
yourself,  and  I  hope  by  your  audience,  from 
a  higher  point  of  view  and  with  eyes  less  be- 


2l6  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

fogged  with  superstition,  than  we  could  have 
possessed  at  any  time  before.  Our  light  has 
come  from  seriously-minded  men.  For  exam- 
ple, Coleridge  has  had  his  way  with  our  gen- 
eration as  thoroughly  as  any  modern  thinker  ; 
and  he  has  influenced  us  as  preachers  and  as 
hearers  of  the  Word,  by  the  well-known  state- 
ment as  to  the  Bible.  He  said  :  "  I  take  up 
this  work  with  the  purpose  to  read  it  for  the 
first  time,  as  I  should  read  any  other  work, — 
as  far,  at  least,  as  I  can  or  dare.  For  I 
neither  can  nor  dare  throw  off  a  strong  and 
awful  prepossession  in  its  favour — certain  as 
I  am  that  a  large  part  of  the  light  and  life  in 
and  by  which  I  see,  love,  and  embrace  the 
truths  and  the  strengths  coorganized  into  a 
living  body  of  faith  and  knowledge,  has  been 
derived  to  me  from  the  sacred  volume."  He 
added  this :  "  If  between  this  Word — the 
Word  that  was  in  the  beginning — the  light 
that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
world — if  between  this  Word  and  the  written 
letter,  I  shall  anywhere  seem  to  myself  to  find 
a  discrepancy,  I  will  not  conclude  that  such 
there  actually  is  ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  will 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    217 

I  fall  under  the  condemnation  of  them  that 
would  lie  for  God,  but,  seek  as  I  may,  be 
thankful  for  what  I  have,— and  wait."—"  In 
the  Bible,  there  is  more  that  finds  me  than  I 
have  experienced  in  all  other  books  put  to- 
gether;  the  words  of  the  Bible  find  me  at 
greater  depths  of  my  being,  and  whatever 
finds  me  brings  with  it  an  irresistible  evi- 
dence of  having  proceeded  from  the  Holy 
Spirit." 

We  are  here,  with  him,  and  with  this  self- 
evidencing  power  in  the  sacred  Scriptures, 
which  puts  their  truthfulness  and  trustworthi- 
ness among  the  securities  of  the  human  soul. 
There  and  there  only,  in  you  and  me,  they 
are  safe.  They  become  endeared  to  the  life 
of  the  human  personality.  It  is  not  other- 
wise with  any  text  for  your  sermon,  which  is 
likeliest  to  be  productive  of  a  discourse  of 
power.  In  all  the  Bible,  which  finds  you  at 
such  a  depth,  and  so  unquestionably  gives 
evidence  of  its  light  and  its  authority  over 
darkness  by  casting  out  the  darkness  with  the 
presence  of  light,  there  burns  forth  your  text, 
which  ^nds  you,  in  its  special  and  convincing 


2l8  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

way.  When  you  meet  it,  or  it  meets  you, 
you  feel  as  Rossetti  says  he  felt  when  he 
met  Swinburne.  Here  was  the  certified  atti- 
tude and  utterance  of  genius.  This  was 
merely  intellectual  recognition.  How  much 
more  must  be  the  ethical  commandment  in 
Moses  and  in  Jesus  Christ  to  us ! 

Whether  the  subject  has  found  the  text 
after  it  has  wandered  in  your  mind,  unclothed, 
mystical,  and  half  angelic,  but  yet  very  hu- 
man, and  waiting  for  the  clothing  and  girding 
which  this  text  now  gives  it,  or  whether  the 
text  is  the  discoverer,  or  the  means  of  discov- 
ering this  now  panoplied  theme  of  yours 
which,  after  they  have  found  one  another, 
seems  never  to  have  been  fitly  treated,  having 
hitherto  been  unclothed,  I  shall  not  stop  to 
inquire,  because  it  is  probable  that  no  two 
men  have  similar  experiences  in  this  matter. 
It  is  also  certain  to  me  that  the  truly  great 
preachers  I  have  known  have  had  both  of 
these  experiences,  and  they  have  occurred 
within  the  same  fortnight.  The  essential 
thing  is  this — we  must  always  get  back  to 
the  Spiritual  Life  of  the  minister  as  the  one 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    219 

fact  which  operates  dominantly  and  decisively, 
and  altogether  healthfully,  so  that  it  makes  no 
difference  whether  the  preacher's  subject  finds 
the  text,  or  the  text  finds  the  subject.  Both 
these  things  will  occur.  But  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  which  are  the  record  of  a  religious 
experience,  nationally  or  personally,  just  like 
his  own,  wonderfully  descriptive  of  his  own 
as  he  reads  the  page  of  prophet,  or  psalmist, 
or  evangelist,  or  apostle, — this  scripture 
must  have  so  found  him  as  a  record  of  human 
life,  therefore,  a  transcript  of  living,  that  his 
text  will  take  its  place  at  the  beginning  of  his 
discourse,  not  at  all  as  a  convenient  place  of 
departure  ;  not  at  all  as  a  terminal  station  to 
which  he  laboriously  sets  his  train  of  thought 
going,  but  as  a  masterful  power-house. 

At  least,  it  must  be  the  opening  out  of 
the  great  resourceful  plant  whence  power  is 
sent  forth  so  strongly  that  it  shall  find  the 
shortest  distance  between  two  points  to  be  a 
straight  line,  yet  so  wisely  and  intelligently  and 
even  sympathetically  sent  forth  that  it  may  be 
directed  to  the  accomplishment  of  human 
purposes  anywhere  and  everywhere  for  the 


220  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

highest  ends.  In  any  other  wise  used,  a  text 
is  sure  either  to  be  abused  or  to  be  in  one's 
way,  or  even,  sometimes,  to  stand  fatefuUy  at 
the  head  of  a  sermon  as  the  condemnation  of 
the  sermon  itself.  Unless  a  text  grips  you 
with  its  realized  ability  to  set  your  thoughts 
and  emotions  going  towards  the  end  of  win- 
ning human  beings  to  a  willing  submission 
of  their  souls  and  their  lives  to  God,  as  their 
Father,  through  Jesus  Christ,  their  Brother, — 
do  not  dare  to  use  it. 

Probably  you  have  not  seen  into  the  text 
as  the  plant,  or  power-house,  capable  of 
furnishing  you  the  forces  you  need.  Do  not 
suppose  your  audience  will  not  see  it,  before 
your  unconnected  discourse  has  been  pushed 
to  some  terminal  station.  Our  time  is  exceed- 
ingly well  instructed  as  to  the  possibilities 
and  uses  of  power.  Men  in  your  audience 
will  discern  the  flashings  of  electric  energy 
from  that  text,  which  contrasts  so  terribly  with 
your  powerlessness.  It  will  flame  and  scatter 
sparks  and  writhe  and  twist  with  a  kind  of 
dumb  effort  to  get  at  your  load  and  push  it 
along.     Nothing   is   so  revealing,  as  to  the 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    221 

heaviness  of  your  unaccelerated  talk  and  the 
peril  of  fires  unused,  as  such  a  condition  of 
things. 

Here,  again,  is  one  of  the  preventions  of- 
fered by  the  Spiritual  Life.  No  man  who 
lives  deeply  is  so  likely  to  misuse,  as  Scrip- 
ture, or  to  proceed  with  a  text  in  sight  of  its 
spiritual  energy  all  unused,  as  is  the  one  who 
desperately  sermonizes  at  people  without 
preaching  to  them,  or  "  reasoning  with  them, 
of  judgment  and  the  world  to  come."  A  liv- 
ing familiarity  with  the  Bible,  or  such  famihar- 
ity  which  comes  through  life  by  the  constant 
feeding  upon  the  Truth  and  its  development 
in  the  Bible,  will  save  you  from  all  worry  as 
to  texts.  They  will  crowd  upon  you  like  so 
many  business  propositions  in  a  time  of  great 
prosperity,  when  "the  spirit  is  within  the 
wheels "  and  things  are  going,  as  we  say. 
Then,  there  comes  the  problem  of  what  text 
you  shall  use  ?  Whenever  that  problem  ap- 
pears, solve  it  by  letting  your  dearest  theme 
have  its  way.  Of  course,  your  theme  will  have 
chosen  you.  It  will  come  partly  out  of  your 
meditation,  partly  out  of  your  reading,  but 


222  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

the  tap  root  of  it  will  go  down  into  your  ex 
perience  as  a   minister,   seeking  personally 
either  to  rescue  or  to  elevate  into  God's  sanc- 
tifying influence  the  souls  of  human  beings. 

The  Spiritual  Life,  then,  is  behind  your 
abiUty  to  see  these  human  beings.  Any  hu- 
man being  is  the  heaviest  and  most  loved 
weight  upon  your  soul.  His  moral  situation, 
as  you  diagnose  his  difficulty,  leaves  you  no 
choice  as  to  what  you  shall  speak  upon.  See- 
ing him,  you  know  there  are  multitudes  like 
him.  Do  not  fail  here ;  do  not  think  he  is 
only  one  man.  Having  found  him,  you  have 
found  the  congregation  ;  he  is  the  key  to  the 
human  situation.  Once  let  him  go,  and  you 
have  perhaps  no  other  human  being  in  sight. 
If  he  goes  from  you,  you  ought  not  to  preach 
at  all.  Hold  fast  to  him.  His  condition  now 
stretches  out  under  the  sky  of  God.  If  your 
theme  does  not  come  welling  up,  at  once,  out 
of  his  need,  and,  instead,  he  is  arid  as  death  to 
your  unilluminated  soul,  press  on  with  your 
truth.  Then  your  theme  will  come  down  out 
of  the  sky,  as  the  clouds  release  their  treas- 
uries of  rain.     Then  the  very  aridness  of  this 


DETERMINATIONS  AND  DELIVERANCES    223 

man's  condition  will  make  you  see  rain,  and 
appreciate  rain,  and  love  rain,  and  rejoice  as 
the  desert  itself  rejoices  while  it  rains.  Do 
not  be  too  anxious  not  to  get  wet  yourself. 
Perhaps  your  own  field  may  share  in  the 
beneficence  of  the  shower. 

But  have  we  forgotten  about  what  text 
you  used?  Any  theme,  so  vitalized — not 
merely  sermonized — as  that  theme  was,  by 
its  origin  and  development  in  this  one  man's 
life,  in  the  case  of  any  preacher  who  knows 
enough  of  our  Holy  Scriptures  to  fitly  enter 
the  ministry,  will  infallibly  have  chosen  some 
word  of  Holy  Writ  which  sets  forth  the 
same  experience  with  Biblical  vividness,  or 
which  enforces  the  commandment  which  once 
uttered  itself  to  an  ancient  saint  at  the  same 
psychological  crisis,  or,  it  shall  be,  that  some 
promise  which  came  in  olden  days,  when  a 
similar  rain  left  a  rainbow  in  the  sky,  and  all 
human  life  will  so  shine  through  everything. 
Then,  most  happily,  the  vision  of  God  which 
prevailed  at  a  similar  contest  of  grace  with 
sin,  or  truth  with  falsity,  must  have  the  vic- 
tory, and  bring  blessing  with  the  triumph. 


LECTURE  VI 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND 
THE     MINISTER'S    MESSAGE 


LECTURE  VI 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND  THE 
MINISTER'S  MESSAGE 

LET  not  my  statement  of  the  theme  for 
to-day  mislead  you.  Of  course,  and, 
as  I  beheve,  of  my  bounden  duty,  I 
have  assumed  that  whatever  has  been  spoken 
by  my  predecessors  in  this  lectureship  is  at 
your  hand,  and  that  you  either  have  availed 
yourselves  of  its  teaching,  or  that  you  will 
soon  find  there  what  no  student  of  the  work 
of  the  ministry,  especially  in  preaching, 
would  neglect  here,  any  more  than  the 
blessed  influences  from  the  past  which  are 
circulating  in  the  air  you  breathe  at  this 
school  of  the  prophets,  or  the  stately  and 
inspiring  traditions  which  attend  you  within 
these  halls.  I  have,  therefore,  also  foreborne 
to  address  you  upon  the  matters  affecting 
any  systematic  mastery  of  homiletics  as  a 
science.  I  hold  your  teachers  in  the  honour 
the  world  accords  them,  and  so  I  would  not 
227 


228  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

trench  upon  a  domain  beyond  my  skill.  Yet 
I  am  glad  to  think  I  am  not  far  from  either 
of  these  interests,  if  I  now  so  approach  and 
consider  with  you  certain  ministerial  func- 
tions other  than  that  of  preaching,  as  I  hope 
to  do,  that  these  shall  at  once  and  forever 
contribute  to  and  reinforce,  as  I  believe  noth- 
ing else  may,  your  power  as  Christian 
preachers. 

In  yesterday's  study,  we  had  almost  un- 
expectedly, yet,  as  I  hope,  inevitably, 
reached  that  interesting  item  in  preaching 
called  the  Text;  and  then  we  found  that 
only  a  luminous  Spiritual  Life  within  us  may 
assure  us  of  a  vital  and  vitalizing  statement 
of  Truth,  even  from  the  Holy  Scriptures,  such 
as  may  at  once  help  to  originate  and  give 
worthiness  to  that  form  of  an  address  called 
a  sermon.  Now,  if  many  years  of  life  as  a 
preacher,  amongst  many  classes  of  my  fel- 
low beings,  have  taught  me  anything,  they 
have  taught  me  this :  that  the  Christian  ser- 
mon, which  is  an  impersonal  thing,  must  be 
sufiFused  with  personality,  and  it  must  depend 
for  its  note  of  personality,  as  a  means  to  an 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       229 

end,  upon  the  preacher  to  the  people  himself 
being  also  the  pastor  of  the  people  whom 
God  has  given  him  to  minister  unto,  in  the 
things  affecting  them  from  the  Christian 
point  of  view. 

I.  The  shepherding  minister  is  the 
pastor. 

II.  He  will  be,  in  and  out  of  his  pulpit,  a 
veritable  voice  of  prayer ;  and,  in  this  sense, 
he  will  be  the  priest  that  he  may  become 
a  truer  prophet — for  this  is  the  order — the 
prophet  of  his  people. 

III.  He  will  also  be  the  man  of  whom  Job 
had  many  a  pre-Christian  vision,  as  by  and 
through  his  sufferings  he  broke  through  an 
inadequate  theology  and  obtained  a  theology 
which  was  also  a  theodicy,  adequate  to  hu- 
man life's  issues  and  demands.  The  minis- 
ter will  be  one  with  whom  "  the  consolations 
of  God  "  are  not  small,  but  mighty;  one  who 
always  may  humbly  and  truthfully  say,  in  the 
highest  sense  :  "  The  blessing  of  him  who 
was  ready  to  perish  came  upon  me." 

Let  me  speak  first,  therefore,  of  the  minister 
as  the  pastor  of  his  flock  who  is  to  be  the 


23©  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

preacher  to  them.  Perhaps  it  is  because 
many  have  come  to  be  preachers,  through 
making  a  comparison  issuing  in  favour  of 
the  choice  of  the  pulpit  as  the  most  promis- 
ing throne  of  power,  for  a  seriously-minded 
Christian  man  who  would  make  the  most 
out  of  his  life,  that  we  find  such  almost 
feverish  and  monotonous  emphasis  in  speech 
and  writing  placed  upon  the  work  of  the 
minister  as  a  preacher.  I  do  not  contest  the 
truth  of  the  assertion  that  the  preaching 
function  is  first  and  foremost,  and  for  that 
variety  and  multitude  of  reasons,  I  think, 
sufficiently  voiced  and  voiceful  here.  I  do, 
however,  contend  that  the  most  useful,  and, 
therefore,  the  most  effective  spokesman  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  originally  born 
out  of,  guided  and  nurtured  by  the  experi- 
ence of  his  own  soul  set  aflame  with  Divine 
Love,  by  his  seeking  to  shepherd  some  lost 
sheep  of  God  our  Father.  We  must  not 
permit  an  age  artistic  and  voluble  in  speech 
to  turn  us  away  from  the  fact  that  one  such  a 
man  as  the  commonplace  Andrew  begins  for 
us  a  mighty  era  in  the  history  of  preaching. 


AND  THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       23 1 

by  his  shepherding  one  man,  and  in  a  man- 
ner very  unsermonic  and  quite  without  public 
eloquence, — one  man,  even  Simon  Peter.  I 
need  not  remind  you,  though  it  is  to  my 
main  purpose,  that  this  memorable  achieve- 
ment in  the  history  of  souls  drew  mightily 
upon  the  resources  of  a  deep  and  strong 
personal  spirituality  in  this  early  Christian. 
It  will  demand  as  much  from  the  latest  Chris- 
tian, also. 

Of  all  the  ways  of  entering  the  Christian 
ministry,  if  I  were  to  choose  for  my  best  be- 
loved the  way  which  must  most  empower 
him  from  the  start,  I  would  choose  this.  A 
ministry  to  the  world,  begun  when  the  per- 
sonal Spiritual  Life  is  brothering  a  loved 
person  into  the  spiritual  family  of  the  All- 
Father,  has  gained  its  manner  at  once.  It 
will  be  gloriously  personal,  all  the  way 
through. 

My  brothers,  I  believe  we  can  more  sympa- 
thetically, and,  therefore,  successfully,  deal 
with  this  matter,  in  the  light  and  by  the  help 
of  this  incident  in  the  early  history  of  the 
Christian  pulpit.     Our  studyof  it  may  help  us 


232  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

also  to  appreciate  the  value  of  the  Scriptures, 
in  and  for  the  solution  of  many  similar  prob- 
lems. I  am  frank  to  say  that,  in  my  judg- 
ment, much  of  the  inefficiency  of  modern 
preaching  comes  of  pulpiteering.  We  grow 
impersonal  enough  to  permit  hundreds  of 
personal  beings  constituting  a  congregation 
to  impersonalize  themselves  into  what  we  call 
an  audience.  Addressing  an  audience,  with 
ever  so  pious  a  message,  is  about  the  farthest 
thing,  in  all  public  effort,  from  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  men  and  women.  An  ex-cathedra 
air  dispersonalizes  our  most  indubitably  per- 
sonal associate,  who  slips  from  the  touch  of 
our  personality,  as  soon  as  he  sits  down  in 
yonder  seat  and  becomes  part  of  our  audi- 
ence. We  are  no  longer  in  personal  rela- 
tions with  him.  It  will  be  a  mighty  gain  to 
the  Church  if  you,  having  somehow  lost  your 
personality  in  these  illusions  as  to  what  con- 
stitutes power  in  the  pulpit,  may  so  study  what 
you  may  call  this  commonplace  and  ordinary 
man,  Andrew,  that  you  may  recover  the  note 
of  personality,  and  once  more  see  human  per- 
sons with  whom  you  are  thinking  and  feeling 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       233 

and  willing  in  your  speech  aimed  towards 
personal  righteousness,  as  you  preach  to 
them.  It  will  be  a  blessing,  such  as  few  other 
gifts  will  contain,  for  the  Church  of  Christ 
and  the  world,  if  those  of  you,  who  have  not 
lost  personality  and  the  vivid  and  sympa- 
thetic sense  of  the  personality  of  each  man 
whom  you  would  reach  with  the  influence  of 
the  personal  Christ,  shall  so  study  such  a 
man  as  Andrew,  who  unquestionably  fur- 
nishes us  with  the  open  secret  of  ministerial 
power,  to  the  end  of  making  his  spiritual 
attitude  and  method  your  own. 

We  will  every  one  of  us  feel  at  home 
with  Andrew.  Most  of  us  are  commonplace 
and  ordinary  men,  at  best.  If  you  have  ever 
told  yourself  this  truth,  in  some  fine  moment 
of  sincerity,  I  trust  you  have  not  been  dis- 
couraged as  to  your  value  and  your  possible 
power  in  the  Christian  ministry.  For  any 
man  is  as  great  as  the  load  he  pulls;  and 
Andrew  certainly  brought  Simon  Peter,  with 
all  his  greatness,  to  his  Master  and  Lord. 
When  we  think  of  this,  how  can  we  call  any 
one  ordinary  or  commonplace,  even  though 


234  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

he  be  as  inconspicuous  and  manifest  as  little 
of  genius  as  did  Andrew  ? 

What  was  the  situation  of  these  two  men, 
Andrew  and  Simon  ?  I  always  think  of  that 
mighty  Atlantic  steamer,  the  pride  and  glory 
of  the  line,  one  of  the  earlier  greyhounds  of 
the  ocean,  and  this  certain  episode  in  the  his- 
tory of  that  ship,  when  I  try  to  account  for  the 
achievement  of  Andrew.  A  great  arm  like 
that  called  Sandy  Hook,  with  viewless  shift- 
ing sands  which  pile  up  in  submerged  hil- 
locks, because  of  the  stormy  currents  be- 
neath, makes  out  from  the  mainland.  To 
reach  the  port,  ships  coming  from  Europe 
still  have  to  pass  over  these  sands.  In  mid- 
winter, this  monarch  of  the  deep,  at  the  mo- 
ment when  every  one  on  board  was  jubilant 
with  the  home-feeling  and  thankful  to  have 
returned  safely,  plowed  suddenly  into  the 
sand,  stopped  and  careened.  Hour  after 
hour  of  pitiless  ocean-waves  exposed  this 
giant  craft,  with  all  her  beauty  and  power, 
to  the  dangerous  sport  of  a  wrathful  sea. 
Men  and  women  prayed  and  cried.  The 
masts    and    cordage    became    clothed   with 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       235 

ice,  and,  when  the  Hght  pierced  the  storm- 
clouds  and  mist,  it  glanced  upon  something 
more  ghosdike  and  splendid  than  Coleridge 
ever  dreamed  of,  or  an  Ancient  Mariner  ever 
beheld.  It  was  glorious,  but  it  was  a  glory 
of  failure  with  grandeur  and  of  death  over- 
matching life. 

Away  of!  there,  however,  through  the  fog, 
now  half  in  sight,  now  buried  in  waves,  with 
her  smoke-stack  belching  blackness  and  her 
bows  lifted,  just  then  riding  on  the  crest  of 
a  breaking  sea,  came  what  seemed  a  tug. 
Nobody  thought  it  was  possible  for  that  tug 
to  live  in  such  a  sea,  but  such  straightforward- 
ness of  movement  and  certainty  of  approach 
had  that  grimy  and  unattractive  craft,  that 
those  who  felt  safe  enough  to  relieve  the  in- 
tensity of  the  situation  smiled  at  that  bossy 
embodiment  of  assurance  coming  for  the 
release  of  the  great  ship.  By  and  by,  the 
ocean-ranger  was  securely  made  fast  to  the 
tug.  Then  the  homely  thing  which  was  so 
nearly  all  engine,  except  her  unattractive 
hull  and  form,  pulled  towards  harbour  and 
port.     The  mighty  ocean  palace,  a  moment 


236  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

before  so  utterly  helpless,  and  almost  more 
powerless  because  of  the  superb  enginery 
motionless  and  still  within  her,  slipped  from 
the  sand-bar,  righted  herself,  and  was  majes- 
tic again.  She  was  making  grandly  for  port. 
But  not  alone  was  she.  Captain  and  crew 
and  all  on  board  would  not  permit  the  tug  to 
get  out  of  sight,  or  even  out  of  touch ;  and 
when  at  last  the  glittering  grandeur  that  was 
called  the  pride  of  the  line  came  to  her  dock, 
and  thousands  with  tears  and  shouts  welcomed 
her,  the  mightiest  salvo  of  praise  must  have 
penetrated  to  the  very  heart  of  that  tug,  for 
it  belonged  to  it.  The  affection  of  happy 
men  and  women  must  have  warmed  the  fires, 
whose  intensity  of  heat  had  diminished  only 
because  the  magnificent  ship  was  now  safe  in 
port. 

Now,  that  ocean  liner  was  Simon  Peter 
and  that  tug  was  Andrew.  I  believe  sin- 
cerely that  to  make  the  business  of  preach- 
ing successful,  you  and  I  must  be  masters 
of  Andrew's  method.  I  am  convinced  that, 
from  the  pulpit,  we  do  not  exercise  the  kind 
of  power   he   had   for   releasing  that  great 


AND  THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       237 

man  and  bringing  him  to  the  desired  haven. 
Let  us  acknowledge  that,  like  that  fine  ship, 
our  Simon  Peters  are  not  bad  men.     They 
are  good  men,  and,  as  we  say,  grand  fellows. 
Let  us  not  think  of  any  kind  of  men  now,  but 
these  men  about  us  who  interest  us  so  much, 
because  of  the  magnificence  of  their  abilities 
and  the  attractiveness  of  their  mental  and 
moral  furnishings.     The  fact  about  them  is, 
however,  their  religion  is  inadequate.     The 
bar  called  Sandy  Hook  is  a  portion  of  the 
America    towards    which    the    Alaska    was 
bound.     In  a  sense,  when  that  ship  struck 
the  sand  which  would  have  been  untouched 
beneath  the  keel  of  lesser  ships,  she  had  al- 
ready  reached    America.     In  a  sense,  also, 
Andrew's  brother  Simon  was  already  relig- 
ious.    He  was  not  only  a  good  Jew,  but  he 
was   also   a  disciple   of  John   the  Baptizer. 
Even  as  we  must  justly  estimate  his  reUgion, 
and  especially  its  body  of  Truth,  so  we  must 
justly  estimate  the  less  than  satisfactory  re- 
ligiousness and  the  submerged  body  of  Truth 
which  many  a  noble  man  has  struck  upon, 
and  which  holds  him  from  going  further. 


238  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

There  is  a  singular  grandeur  and  yet  a  sin- 
gular pathos  in  the  scene,  in  the  midst  of 
which  we  behold  Simon,  or  any  good  man  of 
that  day,  as  the  disciple  of  John  the  Baptizer. 
It  is  ennobling  to  hear  with  responses  of  heart 
and  will  the  solemn  command,  "  Repent  1 
Repent  I "  Nothing  on  earth  is  more  sublime 
than  a  man  honest  with  his  soul,  when  the  air 
quivers  with  such  a  trumpet  tone.  It  is 
grander  still  to  take  a  step — an  outward,  visi- 
ble, irreversible  step — which  puts  that  obe- 
dience into  the  form  of  an  action,  and,  be- 
fore men,  draws  the  line  between  the  soul's 
new  hope  and  its  unsatisfactory  past.  Noth- 
ing on  earth  is  more  impressive  than  a  human 
being  entering  into  the  waters  of  baptism 
with  a  hope  of  spotless  purity. 

Yet  there  was  a  deep  pathos  about  Simon's 
response  to  the  cry,  "  Repent,"  and  his  bap- 
tism by  John.  For,  compared  with  what 
Simon's  soul  needed  in  order  to  reach  his 
broadest,  noblest  manhood,  these  all,  and 
alone,  could  accomplish  so  litde.  He  needed 
a  power  which  would  do  something  positive 
in  him  and  for  him.     To  repent  was  only  to 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       239 

cut  himself  loose  from  his  past :  it  was  a  nega- 
tive work.  The  same  Simon-soil  remained 
upon  which  other  weeds  could  grow,  if  these 
had  been  uprooted.  Something  more  than 
repentance  must  we  have.  He  needed  a  force 
within  him  that  should  consume  the  annoying 
and  dead  moralities  of  his  spirit  with  the 
flame  of  a  resistless  religiousness,  an  energy 
which  would  rouse  every  latent  strength  of 
his  spirit  into  manifest  activity.  To  be  bap- 
tized by  John  for  the  remission  of  sins  was 
only  to  outwardly  symbolize  a  negative  puri- 
fication. He  must  be  more  than  pure,  if  he 
is  to  remain  pure ;  he  must  be  powerful. 
Some  more  interior  and  energetic  baptism 
than  that  of  John  he  must  have,  if  he  is  to 
reach  his  best  manhood.  Let  us  not  under- 
estimate the  significance  of  the  step  Simon 
had  already  taken  by  becoming  a  disciple  of 
John.  He  had  obtained  a  sense  of  reality 
which  had  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  be 
satisfied  with  the  unrealities  of  Pharisees  and 
Scribes,  and  which  had  prepared  him  for  con- 
fessing any  divine  reality  to  which  he  might 
be  led,  and  he  was  full  of  the  idea  of  the  near- 


240  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

ness  of  "the  Messiah."  On  one  of  these 
days,  through  which  were  streaming  the  lights 
of  hope  which  John  the  Baptizer  had  let  into 
Simon's  soul,  his  brother  Andrew  came  to 
him  and  broke  the  silence  with  the  more  im- 
portant news,  "  We  have  found  the  Messias." 
Let  us  see  what  a  personal  Spiritual  Life  was 
behind  all  this  in  Andrew. 

Where  had  Andrew  been  to  obtain  such 
information?  Not  far  away.  We  who 
would  be  ministers  of  power  need  only 
have  our  spiritual  eyes  open  to  behold  the 
Lamb  of  God  walking  on  the  very  pathway 
of  life  which  we  thoughtlessly  tread.  An- 
drew says,  "We  have  found  the  Messias." 
Who  are  "w<?"?  Why,  another  John  had 
been  with  Andrew  near  the  Jordan.  How 
came  these  commonplace  men  to  make  such 
a  matchless  discovery?  Well,  by  being  in 
good  company.  By  keeping  close  to  the  best 
truth-teller  they  knew  of,  they  discovered  a 
better,  as  men  always  do,  until  they  find  Jesus 
Christ. 

Only  the  day  before,  these  two  friends 
were  standing  in  the  presence  of  John,  when 


AND  THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       24I 

there  came  near  to  them  one  whom  this  John 
might  have  spoken  of  as  his  cousin,  Jesus, 
Mary's  son.  But  he  did  not  thus  speak  of 
Him,  because  the  Baptizer  saw  more  deeply 
than  this.  Most  of  us  get  only  the  most 
superficial  qualities  and  gifts  from  the  figures 
which  a  little  while  throng  our  life-paths.  We 
see  superficially,  for  we  have  not  the  spiritual 
eyesight  which  comes  of  obedience  of  the 
Truth  we  know.  We  only  see  our  cousin  in  our 
Christ.  John  the  Baptizer  might  have  spoken 
of  Him  as  his  convert.  That  would  have  been 
like  many  a  modern  statistician  of  the  faith. 
Had  he  not  baptized  Him  ?  It  does  not  require 
more  than  the  performance  of  some  formal  act, 
or  more  than  the  contact  of  our  soul  with  an- 
other soul  in  a  brief  conversation,  to  make 
some  of  us  very  unlike  John,  especially  in  this. 
The  smaller  always  claims  the  larger.  John's 
mind  had  been  dealing  in  the  solitudes,  and 
in  the  face  of  vast  audiences,  with  the  pro- 
found and  passionate  cries  of  the  human  soul, 
and  with  the  infinite  and  tender  response  of 
God,  its  Father,  to  its  needs.  Away  below 
every  other  fact  which  had  to  do  with  the 


242  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

weakness  or  woe  of  humanity,  his  eye  saw 
this  one  only — siii.  He  had  what  any  man 
who  approaches  a  true  ministry  must  have,  a 
quick  sense  of  the  fundamental  cause  of  all 
human  woe.  No  other  schemes  for  the 
changing  of  man's  sorrows  into  joys  and  his 
weakness  into  strength  employed  his  mind. 
Man  must  be  delivered  from  sin.  John  had  a 
dim  sense  of  the  sin-bearing  love  of  God. 
He  therefore  threw  into  his  words  the  whole 
significance  of  these  visions  and  hopes,  along 
with  the  eloquent  meanings  of  a  past  which 
Andrew  had  partially  understood,  when  the 
Baptizer  pointed  to  Jesus,  and  said  :  "  Be- 
hold the  Lamb  of  God."  The  day  before  he 
had  said,  when  this  same  Jesus  came  in  sight, 
"  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  worlds 

It  is  quite  impossible  for  me  to  think 
that  these  simple  fishermen  entirely  grasped 
the  fine  significance  of  these  great  words. 
The  after-life  of  these  who  became  disciples 
of  Jesus  shows  that,  not  until  after  their  Lord 
had  lived  His  life  on  earth,  did  they  have  any 
thing  like  a  clear  conception  of  the  truth  of 


AND   THE  MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       243 

the  sin-bearing  Lamb  of  God.  It  would  cer- 
tainly be  too  much  to  presume  these  men  to 
have  seen  in  these  words  the  multitude  of 
mutually  exclusive  ideas  which  differing  com- 
mentators have  there  discovered.  It  was,  at 
all  events,  too  great  a  saying  for  their  thought 
and  experience  to  take  in.  Great  revelations 
are  themselves,  at  first,  great  mysteries. 
Jesus  the  greatest  of  revelations  is  the  great- 
est of  mysteries.  But  what  can,  what  ought 
a  true  man  to  do  in  the  presence  of  such  a  re- 
vealing mystery  ?  Andrew  and  his  companion 
show  us.  They  approach  it  with  reverence. 
They  do  not  speak,  until  it  does — "  and  the 
two  disciples  heard  Him  speak," — and  having 
heard,  they  obey — "  and  they  followed  Jesus." 
God  must  help  us  to  listen.  It  is  not  an  easy 
thing  for  many  preachers  to  do.  Then  we 
must  follow  until  He  speaks  again  to  us. 

Our  Lord  should  find  in  us  what  made 
Andrew  the  kind  of  man  to  deal  with,  to  the 
end  of  producing  certain  results  in  the  form 
of  religion — a  man  who  is  certain  of  finding 
the  living  kernel  within  every  forbidding  mys- 
tery.    The  passive  virtues  combine  to  make 


244  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

active  soul-winners.  He  was  inwardly  at- 
tracted by  Truth.  No  more  than  Andrew, 
should  any  one  of  you  be  a  superstitious,  fear- 
ful hunter  after  Truth,  beginning  to  tremble 
when  you  have  to  keep  still  and  hear  Truth 
speak.  The  true  minister  is  not  made  of  a 
man  who  quakes  with  fear,  when,  after  he 
has  asked  the  Truth  where  it  lives,  as  An- 
drew did.  Truth  says,  as  Jesus  said  :  "  Come 
and  see."  Let  us  fear  only  the  superstition 
or  agnosticism  which  keeps  us  from  the  joy- 
ous task  of  going  home  with  Truth,  as 
Andrew  did,  and  dwelling  with  it  in  the 
person  of  Jesus.  The  account  says :  "  He 
abode  with  Him  that  day."  He  had  a  home- 
view  of  Jesus ;  he  saw  Truth  where  it  is 
simplest  and  most  hospitable.  He  came 
away,  as  all  of  us  must  do,  from  any  interview 
with  "  Truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,''  with  a  master- 
ful reverence  and  love  for  that  kind  of  mys- 
terious revelation  which  invites  the  human 
soul  to  its  own  home,  and  which  always  says 
to  all  honest  and  earnest  souls  :  "  Come  and 
see."  Christianity  is  a  fact  whose  familiarity 
is  divine. 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       245 

What  then  occurred?  Andrew  was  so 
brothered  by  Jesus  ;  he  so  got  enough  of  the 
truth  concerning  Him  to  guarantee  his  com- 
ing some  time  to  the  rest ;  he  was  so  per- 
vaded by  the  brotherliness  of  Him,  that  he 
began  to  feel  brotherward,  Simon-ward  ;  and 
he  longed  for  Simon,  to  draw  him  up  within 
the  genial  radiance.  I  despair  of  any  man's 
ministry  which  does  not  thus  get  its  attitude, 
inspiration,  and  method. 

Now,  with  many  of  our  methods  and  habits 
of  getting  acquainted  with  Truth  and  dealing 
with  all  mysterious  revelations — with  our  way 
of  never  going  up  to  a  mystery  and  listen- 
ing, but  rather  speaking  unpreparedly  about 
it,  and  with  our  way  of  never  following  it 
home  and  staying  patiently  with  it  all  day, 
but  rather  avoiding  even  the  effort,  we  are 
likely  to  be  surprised  that  this  man  Andrew 
should  ask  himself  just  these  questions : 
"Where  is  Simon,  my  brother?  and  how 
can  I  get  him  here  ?  "  How  this  puts  our 
brotherliness  to  shame  !  How  such  a  vivid, 
commanding  vision  of  Jesus  as  this  contrasts 
with  our  pale,  vague  views  of  Jesus,  which 


246  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

have  no  power  to  send  us  to  anybody,  not 
even  to  our  most  distant  relatives,  in  a  letter 
written  in  the  third  person  and  without  ad- 
dress or  date  I  We  may  well  go  further  and 
study  Andrew's  method  of  bringing  Simon 
to  Jesus.  For  here  is  the  beginning  of  min- 
istry. 

There  are  three  stages  in  the  process  with 
Andrew,  and  there  will  be  these  three  for  you 
and  me : 

(/)  Finding.  "  He  first  findeth  his  own 
brother  Simon."    (Verse  41.) 

{2)  Saying.  "  And  saith  unto  him  :  '  We 
have  found  the  Messias.'  "     (Verse  41.) 

(j)  Bringing.  "  And  he  brought  him  to 
Jesus."     (Verse  42.) 

I.  Finding :  Men  have  failed  to  observe 
this  order.  We  have  often  been  speaking  to 
or  at  our  brother,  before  we  have  known 
where  he  was.  Be  sure  our  words  do  not 
find  men,  when  we  have  not  first  found  them. 
Men  know  whether  our  brotherliness  knows 
where  they  are,  or  not.  What  made  Andrew 
such  a  successful  finder  of  the  soul  he  sought 
for?    You  say  it  was  his  generous,  intense 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       247 

brotherhood.  That,  surely,  ought  to  make  a 
man  successful  in  finding  a  brother's  soul, 
a  Simon.  The  boys  who  nursed  the  same 
breasts,  clambered  upon  the  same  knees, 
kissed  the  same  lips,  saw  the  same  tears,  and 
perhaps  stood  together  at  the  same  graves, 
each  ought  to  be  easily  found  when  he  is 
sought  by  the  other.  But  it  is  not  always 
so.  Sometimes  a  mother's  tears  roll  like 
unmeasured  oceans  between  two  children, 
Andrew  and  Simon.  When  brotherhood  has 
been  debased  and  slain,  the  very  gravitations 
pull  the  hearts  asunder.  It  is  a  dreadful 
hour  when  Andrew  ca-nnot  Jind  Simon — when 
Andrew's  haunts  and  loves  and  Simon's  are 
as  far  apart  in  reality  as  east  from  west, 
although  the  city  directory  says  they  live  in 
the  same  block.  It  is  a  fact  before  whose 
presence  men  ought  to  shed  tears  of  grateful 
joy,  whenever  Andrew  and  Simon  may  easily 
and  surely  find  each  other. 

Strange  enough  it  is,  that  men  we  meet 
can  find  each  other  so  rarely,  when  they 
have  something  to  tell  of  Jesus.  It  seems 
hardest  for  those   who  are  most  familiarly 


248  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

bound  together.  A  brother  superficially  in- 
fluenced by  Jesus  wants  to  hunt  for  some- 
body else's  relatives.  He  can  talk  with  his 
brother  on  every  other  topic,  can  warn  him 
to  avoid  stormy  weather,  can  beg  him  to 
keep  out  of  the  hot  sun,  can  entreat  him  to 
escape  the  burning  house  and  force  him  to 
leap  ior  his  life ;  but  when  eternal  destiny  is 
to  be  decided  and  the  hour  is  nearly  gone, 
he  is  tongue-tied.  He  gropes  in  his  talk. 
He  seems  blindfolded  with  embarrassment. 
He  finds  everybody  else ;  he  cannot  find  his 
brother.  It  is  all  but  impossible  for  him  to 
remember  the  need  of  Simon — Andrew  is  so 
happy  !  Oh,  what  a  lie  is  all  this  !  Oh,  con- 
trariwise when  an  Andrew  really  and  deeply 
has  been  found  by  Jesus,  who  is  Christ,  he 
*'Jirsi,^'  of  all  things  after  that,  "  findeth  his 
own  brother  Simon."  It  is  a  superficial 
Christian  experience  which  forgets  the  ten- 
derest  ties  and  the  nearest  heart-companions, 
and  contents  itself  for  the  first  month  in 
hiring  a  sixth-story  room  and  mailing  tracts, 
or  singing  about  the  new  Jerusalem.  If  you 
do  not  feel  that  you  must  teJl  somebody,  and 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       249 

especially  the  man  nearest  you,  about  Christ, 
it  is  because  you  have  not  much  to  tell. 

Here  is  the  making  of  the  minister.  All 
true  ministers  are  made  such  by  Christ's 
revealing  in  them  a  passion  of  brotherliness 
for  brotherhood,  by  and  through  His  own. 

Jesus  gave  to  Andrew,  first  of  all,  a  sense 
that  he  himself  was  a  brother  of  Simon,  and, 
secondly,  a  consciousness  of  the  fact  that 
Simon  was  a  brother  of  him.  Unless  you 
have  received  this  gift,  your  call  to  the  mm- 
istry  is  of  doubtful  authenticity.  These  con- 
stitute the  nerve  of  missions.  Some  of  us 
get  one  of  these  ideas  without  the  other.  A 
man  who  cannot,  and  does  not,  live  in  the 
apprehension  of  both  of  them,  is  not  ac- 
quainted with  Andrew's  Christ,  and  cannot 
preach  Him.  Here  was  a  brother  to  look; 
and  there  was  a  brother  to  look  for.  Simon 
was  just  as  real  to  Andrew  as  Andrew  was 
to  himself.  Christ  gives  the  soul  so  good  a 
gift  that  it  says  :  "  Brother  must  have  it." 
This  is  the  only  reason  for  a  sermon,  ex- 
cept this  :  Christ  intensifies  the  sense  of  a 
brother's  value  so  much  that  the  soul  says, 


250  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

"  Christ  must  have  my  brother.''^     These  two 
are  Alpha  and  Omega  for  us. 

When  you  see  even  dimly  the  glory  which 
streamed  out  upon  every  brother-man  from 
this  Christ,  when  the  rays  of  hope  sprang 
from  the  very  brow  of  Messias  as  you  know 
Him  in  your  own  spiritual  experience  with 
Him — when  you  see  how  certain  is  the 
splendid  future  of  every  brother-man  in 
Him,  your  eyes  will  be  full  of  light.  You 
will  see  deeper,  further  than  ever  before,  and 
you  vf'iW  Jind  Simon  who  shall  be  Peter,  "  the 
rock-man."  Priceless  will  be  his  worth  to 
you.  Andrew  had  eyes  that  must  find  him ; 
so  must  yours  and  mine.  Have  we  for- 
gotten "  ministerial  functions "  ?  No.  But 
to  be  a  soul-winner  is  more  to  our  hope,  and 
it  is  more  than  all  functioning  ministerially. 
You  must  have  brotherly  eyes  to  find  Simon. 
In  those  eyes  must  be  the  light  of  God's 
Son,  which  will  shut  every  false  shadow  out. 
In  those  eyes  must  be  a  sense  of  what  Christ 
has  for  your  brother ;  that  will  take  you  to 
him,  unembarrassed  and  unafraid.  It  will 
make  you  forget  your  audience^  as  you  talk 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       25 1 

of  Jesus  as  with  one  man.  In  those  eyes 
must  glow  Christ's  valuation  of  your  brother, 
which  will  make  it  impossible  for  you  to  see 
anything  else.  Into  those  eyes  there  must 
have  come  the  divine  love  which  looked 
earthward  in  Christ  and  found  you — a  love 
which  will  look  the  universe  through  and 
through  until  Andrew  finds  Simon.  The 
soul-finder  has  eyes  which  are  set  on  finding. 
I  suppose  Andrew  was  simple  and  old- 
fashioned  enough  to  go  where  Simon  could 
be  found.  We  are  too  fashionable,  or  too 
decorous,  or  too  churchly,  or  too  cold-hearted 
and  un-Christian  to  do  that.  It  is  all  seen 
in  the  location  of  our  church  and  its  unfitness 
for  finding  anybody  personally.  Too  often 
we  establish  ourselves  within  a  great  build- 
ing of  solemn  look  and  dignified  architecture, 
removed  from  Simon's  haunts,  especially  if 
he  has  gone  wrong  or  needs  us  much,  with 
stilted  mannerisms  and  hard  forms  which 
are  uninviting  to  him,  with  a  theological  test 
for  every  visitor  who  would  have  fellowship 
with  us — a  test  which  we  do  not  ourselves 
understand  or  profess  to  enforce  in  preach- 


252  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

ing — and,  having  established  our  place  of 
operation,  with  such  completeness  and  care, 
we  practically  say  to  our  brother  Simon,  who 
does  not  know  Jesus  at  all,  "  Now  you  come 
in  here,  and  beheve,  or  be  lost."  I  know 
that  this  is  a  very  bold  way  of  stating  it,  but 
I  meant  you  should  see  the  dreadful  contrast 
between  the  way  in  which  Andrew  found 
Simon  and  the  way  in  which  we  can  never 
find  Simon,  our  brother.  To  find  Simon, 
Andrew  goes  where  he  is,  and  so  must  we. 

We  must  go  where  men  are,  touch  them 
where  they  are,  seek  them  for  what  they  are, 
if  we  are  to  be  soul-winners  like  Andrew. 
Andrew's  Christian  enthusiasm  would  have 
carried  him  over  danger,  through  deep  dark- 
ness, past  vile  places,  across  seas  of  disgust- 
ing infamy,  up  any  height  of  difficulty,  down 
into  any  depth  of  disgrace,  if  by  any  or  all  he 
might  have  found  Simon  !  So  will  yours  and 
mine,  when  we  have  Andrew's  experience, 
and  only  then.  After  he  sees  Jesus,  a  man 
has  new  eyes  for  souls.  No  den  of  infamy 
is  too  horrible  for  his  pious  feet,  if  away 
there,  at  the  end  of  his  path  of  love,  sparkles 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       253 

the  gem  of  a  soul.  No  distance  leading 
through  by-ways  of  shame,  and  up  rough 
rocks  of  forbidding  sharpness,  is  too  long  or 
too  severe,  if  such  a  soul  knows  that  there  is 
a  human  being  who  needs  Christ,  at  the  end. 
The  Church  must  go  where  men  are  ;  it  must 
find  them,  if  it  is  to  be  Christian. 

Go  to  none  of  these  places,  if  Christ  has 
not  found  you  and  gripped  you  strongly. 
Do  not  dare  to  take  hold  of  a  Simon,  so 
burly  in  energy  of  will,  impetuous  and  hard 
to  handle,  unless,  when  you  grasp  his  hand, 
your  own  is  surely  in  the  grasp  of  the 
Almighty  Christ.  You  may  brother  others, 
only  when  you  are  brothered  divinely. 

II.  Saying:  Andrew  findeth  and  then 
Andrew  sayeth.  Many  a  man  and  many  an 
institution  have  somehow  found  men :  and 
yet  they  have  not  been  "  brought  to  Jesus." 
Simon  has  remained  the  same  Simon,  with- 
out an  intimation  of  ever  being  transformed 
into  a  Peter.  Men  are  so  ready  to  hear,  so 
anxious  for  a  tone  of  hope,  so  hungry  for  a 
crumb  of  inspiration,  that  it  is  not  hard  to  find 
them,  if  one  wants  to  do  them  ever  so  litde 


254  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

good.  Many  a  man  has  confessed  to  you, 
already,  by  the  earnestness  with  which  some 
tiny  ray  of  your  meagre  store  of  sunlight  has 
been  caught  up,  that  he  is  a  plant  whose  na- 
ture pleads  for  the  sun.  Every  soul  in  your 
parish  is  a  prophet  of  the  Christ.  The  ease 
with  which  a  little  brotherly  goodness  finds 
men  shows  how  they  will  always,  yea,  must 
always  respond  to  the  divine  goodness,  to 
God.  It  is  an  awful  thing  for  a  man  known 
as  a  minister,  stronger  and  clearer-eyed  for 
goodness  and  truth,  to  find  men,  to  disturb 
them  at  their  depths,  to  make  the  old  past 
impossible  for  them — and  then  to  have  no 
word  to  say  which  shall  bring  them  face  to 
face  with  goodness  itself,  with  God,  with  Him 
who  is  Truth.  Before  the  awakened  army  of 
a  man's  powers  let  not  the  leader  be  dumb. 
And  you  would  better  be  dumb  than  to  be 
unable  then  to  present  the  Captain  of  our 
salvation  to  that  man's  powers,  which  are 
risen  up  "clad  in  complete  steel."  There 
ought  to  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  message.  It 
is  like  Emerson's  "  inevitable  word  "  which 
makes  the  poem  ;  this  is  the  sermon. 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       255 

There  is  very  little  need  of  your  saying 
anything,  if  there  is  anything  save  one  thing 
which  you  can  say.  There  was  one  thing, 
and  one  only,  which  Andrew  might  say : 
"  We  have  found  the  Messias."  How  much 
more  grandly  one  brother  man  can  talk  to 
another  than  that  in  heaven,  I  do  not  know  ; 
one  thing  is  sure,  there  never  was  loftier 
saying  on  earth  than  this  to  Simon  from 
Andrew  :  "  We  have  found  the  Messias." 

Do  not  underestimate  the  cogency  of  the 
fact  that  it  came  from  Andrew,  was  of  him, 
and  just  like  him.  A  message  is  never  much, 
unless  it  has  in  it  the  personal  biography  of 
the  man  who  utters  it.  Every  really  minis- 
tering man's  character  communicates  his 
quality  through  his  message.  It  is  aston- 
ishing to  observe  the  revelation,  and  also 
hear  of  the  capital  experience  of  the  in- 
tellect's regeneration,  in  the  succinctness, 
lucidity,  and  suggestiveness  of  his  phrase- 
ology. A  sincere  man,  however  small  or 
great  his  genius,  will  unveil  his  personality, 
and  this  will  delineate  itself  truly,  behind  and 
within  whatever  message  he  has  to  deliver. 


256  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

in  moments  when  this  unforgetable  expe- 
rience is  used  as  a  resource.  Even  the 
peculiarities  of  that  experience,  which  made 
it  impossible  for  him  to  be  anything  else 
than  a  preacher,  or  which,  dealing  with  his 
own  age  and  its  difficulties  has  given  to  him 
his  own  message,  will  appear  likewise,  even 
in  his  way  of  stating  it.  Here  is  another 
evidence  of  the  power  and  even  the  determi- 
nation of  the  unconscious  and  deepest  in  us, 
and  of  us. 

Let  us  leave  Andrew  for  a  moment ;  for  as 
an  ordinarily  endowed  man,  we  may  consider 
him, — a  man  whose  nearness  to  us  in  this 
matter  of  ordinariness  comforts  us  especially 
when  we  see  what  a  successful  ministry  was 
his,  through  his  bringing  Simon  Peter  into 
the  kingdom.  Let  us  go  to  Phillips  Brooks, 
a  man  extraordinarily  endowed,  who,  never- 
theless, in  all  the  upward  regions  of  his 
magnificent  mind,  exercised  that  fatherhood 
of  the  genius  for  goodness  which  Washing- 
ton exercised  and  which,  as  I  have  said,  a 
Napoleonic  kind  of  man  never  can  exercise. 
The  American  leader  is  called  the  "  Father  of 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       257 

his  Country  " — a  thing  no  penetrative  mind 
could  dream  of  the  French  leader.  All  fa- 
therhood of  genius  is  of  the  same  quality.  It 
was  in  those  moments,  when  Phillips  Brooks 
was  most  luminous  and  effective,  when  the 
shining  retinue  of  his  abilities  seemed  self- 
illuminative,  that  one  obtained  a  certain  self- 
revelation  to  which  I  will  refer  as  manifested 
in  two  sermons,  which  I  well  remember.  You 
may,  and  ought,  to  study  them  for  yourselves. 
They  are  only  two  of  a  large  number  which 
I  heard  as  a  young  man ;  and  now  I  re- 
member that  not  one  that  I  ever  heard  from 
this  preacher,  when  he  was  at  what  we 
called  "  his  best,"  failed  to  betray  this  inter- 
esting fact — he  seemed  ever  standing  at  a 
kind  of  crossroads,  where  two  truths  came 
into  that  reconciliation  of  truths  which  the 
noblest  human  life  alone  furnishes.  The  first 
sermon  had  as  its  text,  "  Peter  saith  unto 
him,  '  Lord,  why  cannot  I  follow  Thee  now  ? '  " 
He  at  once  said  that  he  would  speak  of  the 
delayed  completions  of  life.  He  brought  into 
view,  first,  Christ's  announcement  to  His  dis- 
ciples that  He  was  going  from  them,  and  that 


258  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

where  He  was  going  they  should  come  also, 
and  Simon  Peter's  impetuous  word  of  desire 
and  questioning :  "  Why  cannot  I  follow 
Thee  now  ?  "  It  seemed  very  beautiful,  this 
thought  of  his  immediate  going  with  his 
Lord  homeward  and  heavenward.  The 
crossroads  to  which  I  refer,  you  may  see  in 
the  preacher's  treatment  of  the  spiritual 
situation  which  Jesus  left  undisturbed,  to 
work  out  its  beneficent  results  in  Simon 
Peter  :  *'  Patience  and  struggle.  An  earnest 
use  of  what  we  have  now,  and,  all  the  time, 
an  earnest  discontent  until  we  come  to  what 
we  ought  to  be.  Are  not  these  what  we 
need, — what  in  their  rich  union  we  could  not 
get,  except  in  just  such  a  life  as  this  with  its 
delayed  completions  ?  Jesus  does  not  blame 
Peter  when  he  impetuously  begs  that  he 
may  follow  Him  now.  He  bids  him  wait 
and  he  shall  follow  Him  some  day.  But  we 
can  see,"  said  the  preacher — and  now  the 
crossroads — "that  the  value  of  his  waiting 
lies  in  the  certainty  that  he  shall  follow^ 
and  the  value  of  his  following,  zvhen  it 
comes,  will  lie  in  the  fact  that  he  has  waited. 


AND  THE   MINISTER'S  MESSAGE       259 

So,  if  we  take  all  of  Christ's  culture,  we  are 
sure  that  our  life  on  earth  may  get  al- 
ready the  inspiration  of  the  heaven  for 
which  we  are  training,  and  our  life  in  heaven 
may  keep  forever  the  blessing  of  the  earth 
in  which  we  were  trained." 

The  second  sermon  which  I  ask  you  to 
study  reveals  the  same  thing,  not  more  in  the 
spiritual  situation  than  from  the  mind  and 
personality  of  the  preacher,  whose  habit  of 
dealing  with  truths  at  crossroads,  as  I  have 
termed  it,  was  an  affair  of  character.  He 
saw  his  age  and  understood  its  cross-cur- 
rents. The  text  is,  "As  Peter  looked  upon 
the  vision,  an  angel  said  unto  him  :  '  Behold, 
two  men  seek  thee.'  "  Instantly,  upon  the 
reading  of  the  text,  the  preacher  announced 
his  subject,  "  Man  Between  his  Visions  and 
his  Tasks."  I  need  not  give  any  long  quota- 
tion in  this  case.  The  crossroads  was  soon 
in  sight.  It  was  approached  and  illuminated 
as  the  preacher  made  it  clear  to  that  crowd 
of  students,  gathered  to  hear  this  Commence- 
ment Sermon  from  the  pulpit  of  his  own 
University,  that  our  tasks  must  have  their 


26o  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

visions  in  order  that  they  may  be  lit  up  with 
the  ideal ;  and  our  visions  must  have  their 
tasks,  in  order  that  they  may  be  made  real. 
It  may  be  interesting,  in  this  connection,  to 
say  that  this  great,  strong,  overflowing,  and 
often  impetuous  man  appeared  to  many  of 
us  at  his  greatest  when  he  was  preaching  on 
Simon  Peter.  The  ardent  man  for  whom 
commonplace  Andrew  had  done  so  much,  by 
his  ministry,  was  having  his  greatness  proven 
in  the  speech  which  welled  up  from  the  life  of 
his  true  brother.  We  could  all  see  him,  as 
he  accepted  the  keys  from  the  hands  of  his 
Master  and  Lord. 

But  to  return  to  Andrew,  and  to  the 
atmosphere  in  which  our  ordinary  powers 
feel  at  home.  We  have  learned,  while  we 
have  been  away  from  him,  that  what  the 
successful  Andrew  or  Bishop  Brooks  said,  re- 
quired no  greater  genius  to  utter  than  the 
weakest  here  possesses ;  for  it  ever  is  the 
shortest,  yet  the  clearest  possible,  statement 
of  the  fact  which  has  gripped  his  personality  : 
"  We  have  found  the  Messias."  The  whole 
of  Christianity  is  fact.     Not  our  profoundest 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       261 

or  acutest  study  of  things,  but  Jesus  Himself 
must  make  each  of  us  factual  rather  than 
speculative.  Obey  Him,  when  He  says  to 
our  inquiries  as  to  where  He  lives  :  "  Come 
and  see."  Follow  Him,  and  you  will  be  suffi- 
ciently orthodox.  You  will  know  His  rank 
and  reality.  Andrew  had  the  power  of  a  fact 
behind  him  and  in  his  voice.  A  speculation 
or  a  theory  about  this  man  Jesus  would  have 
kept  him,  as  it  keeps  us,  indoors,  musing  and 
philosophizing,  for  the  day,  at  least. 

"  We  have  found  the  Messias.  Simon,  my 
brother,  I  have  a  fact  for  you."  When  this 
experience  enters  our  preaching,  it  is  irresist- 
ible to  an  age  devoted  to  facts.  It  makes  his 
literary  style,  without  the  man's  thinking  of 
such  a  thing.  We  are  told  that  men  get  the 
best  literary  style  by  "  having  something  to 
say  and  then  saying  it."  Any  style  heavy 
with  facts  is  saved  from  heaviness.  A  fact 
clears  a  man's  sentences  of  meaningless 
phrases  and  cumbersome  polysyllables.  A 
fact  to  tell  of  gives  a  speaker  "  economy  of 
the  hearer's  attention,"  and  that,  Herbert 
Spencer  says,  is   the   secret  of  style.     This 


262  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

Style  of  Andrew  is  the  soul-winner's  style. 
Of  course,  as  we  have  seen,  here  also  is  the 
truth  in  Buff  on' s  fine  saying :  "  The  style  is 
the  man."  Andrew  was  a  plain,  strong,  fact- 
loving  man,  and  that  gave  him  plainness 
and  strength  in  handling  this  fact  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Simon.  The  open  secret  of  speaking 
to  men  about  Jesus,  which  we  most  need  to 
obtain,  is  first,  like  Andrew,  be  a  plain  man  ; 
secondly,  like  Andrew,  also,  deal  in  plaitt 
statements  of  facts. 

The  way  Truth  has  used  to  get  into  us 
is  likely  to  be  the  way  which  Truth  uses 
that  it  may  go  out  of  us  to  others.  Read, 
by  all  means,  Bishop  Lightfoot's  essay  on 
the  influence  of  Stephen  upon  St.  Paul. 
There  you  see  Paul,  years  after  his  hearing 
Stephen's  defense,  made  while  the  young 
Pharisee  was  holding  the  garments  of  Ste- 
phen's murderers,  at  length  speaking  for 
Stephen's  Christ  and  his,  from  the  same 
view-point,  using  the  same  argument,  wrest- 
ling with  a  mob,  or  Agrippa,  or  Festus,  or  the 
crowd  at  Athens,  often  in  the  same  phrase- 
ology as  that  of  the  moment  when  he  was 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       263 

made  a  man  in  Christ  Jesus.  Not  less  of  this 
sincerity  and  responsiveness  of  personality  to 
a  sovereign  experience  is  shown  by  any  An- 
drew, when  he  has  gone  out  after  his  brother- 
man.  All  Andrew's  ministry  grew  out  of  his 
personal  experience  with  his  Lord.  The 
way  of  his  expression  of  Jesus  was  inevitably 
the  way  of  the  impression  of  Jesus  upon  him 
—so  genuine  was  the  man.  Andrew  first 
took  hold  of  that  side  of  divine  reality  which 
any  of  our  minds  may  handle. 

This  genuineness  always  makes  for  origi- 
nality. Andrew  has  the  finest  originality. 
He  does  not  imitate  even  his  teacher,  the 
great  John,  the  Baptizer.  He  says  to  Simon, 
not  "  We  have  found  the  Lamb  of  God''  but 
"We  have  found  the  Messias^  Andrew  is 
what  you  may  be,  a  soul-winner ;  he  is  not  a 
great  penetrative  theologian,  which  you  and  I, 
most  likely,  cannot  be.  He  is  narrow,  it  may 
be  ;  and  you  and  I  ought  to  be  narrow  enough 
to  be  intense.  Andrew^  is  a  Jew  ;  he  must  see 
the  Jewish  "  Messias  "  in  his  "  Lamb  of  God." 
Any  true  gospeller,  as  by  instinct,  takes  up 
that  fact  concerning,  and  in  his  Christ,  which 


264  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

has  actually  fired  his  own  heart,  and  which, 
he  knows,  without  reasoning  the  matter  out, 
will  fire  his  brother's  heart  also.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter of  his  sincere  character  that  he  does  not 
attempt  to  win  a  soul,  with  even  the  Baptizer's 
conception  of  Jesus.  Things  are  too  serious 
with  him  to  permit  him  to  steal  even  better 
thunder  than  his  own.  He  can  do  best  with, 
because  he  is  most  interested  in,  his  own 
thunderbolts  of  conviction  and  experience. 
Suppose  he  had  tried  to  be  unquestionably- 
orthodox,  instead  of  first  being  true.  He 
then  might  have  said  to  Simon:  "We  have 
found  the  Second  Person  of  the  Trinity." 
That  would  have  been  no  more  than  the  liter- 
alist  among  dogmatists  would  feel  he  ought 
to  do  "  in  the  interest  of  Truth."  It  would 
have  been  no  more  impossible  for  Andrew 
to  do  this,  than  it  is  impossible  for  others 
to  see  that  such  conduct  is  now  pedantic 
and  sad.  Keep  to  your  own  truth,  Andrew. 
You  will  get  the  rest  in  time.  Get  to  your 
brother,  and  you  will  get  the  larger  truth. 
With  what  truth  you  have,  not  with  what 
truth    your   greatest  teacher  has,   you  must 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       265 

apprehend  Jesus,  and  thus  become  a  soul- 
bringer. 

Men  will  give  no  such  response,  as  we 
behold  in  this  immediate  action  of  Simon,  to 
anything  but  such  a  statement  and  from  such 
a  man.  The  personality  behind  and  in  the 
statement  is  next  to  the  supreme  thing.  Be 
as  impatient  as  he  was  of  the  refinements  of 
theory ;  be  more  impatient  of  anything  less 
than  straightforwardness  and  reverence  for 
a  fact,  than  even  this  man  was.  Here  was  a 
fact,  larger  than  the  man  who  brought  it,  or 
him  to  whom  it  was  brought.  So  that  fact  is 
to-day.  When  it  was  given  to  him,  I  cannot 
find  that  Simon  stopped  to  discuss  the  mat- 
ter at  all.  He  would  probably  have  worsted 
Andrew  in  an  argument.  But  the  gospeller, 
Andrew,  always  has  the  advantage,  in  that 
alone  he  has  the  fact — Jesus  the  Christ. 

Never  surrender  that  advantage,  when  you 
go  out  to  bring  Simon.  Never  drop  the 
weapon  of  your  fact  to  argue  with  your  bird 
on  the  wing,  but  fire !  Skepticism  is  like  a 
bright  lawyer  with  a  poor  case  ;  it  is  better 
on   argument   than   on  facts.      Evangelism, 


266  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

true  and  thorough,  is  not  a  debater,  but  a 
witness ;  it  does  not  argue,  it  testifies.  Sad 
is  the  caricature  which  appears,  when  any 
man  who  has  such  a  fact  as  "  the  Messias  " 
engages  to  debate  Simon  to  Jesus.  It  was 
the  factualness  of  the  man  once  bUnd  which 
counted  in  widening  the  Gospel's  realm  of 
victory.  He  said  :  "  This  one  thing  I  know, 
that,  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see." 

I  fail  to  find  in  Andrew's  words  or  actions 
anything  like  that  trembling,  apologizing 
fear  and  embarrassment  which  characterize 
most  men,  when  they  go  to  speak  to  their 
own  kin  about  religious  matters.  There  are 
two  reasons  for  this  freedom  and  power  in 
him,  and  in  any  other  man  who  associates 
closely  with  the  men  he  would  see  coming 
into  the  kingdom.  First,  Andrew  does  not 
come  to  tell  Simon  about  himself,  but  about 
Jesus ;  and,  secondly,  Andrew  had  not  our 
pitifully  limited  ideas  of  what  Jesus  would 
do  for  his  brother,  but  very  different  ones. 
These  interpenetrate  one  another.  Andrew 
was  too  full  of  Jesus  to  talk  about  Andrew  ;  we 
are  often  too  full  of  Andrew  to  talk  about  Jesus. 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       267 

Here  is  a  person  who  is  speaking  to  a 
person,  in  order  to  lead  him  to  a  person. 
Andrew,  Simon,  Jesus — three  persons,  and  no 
abstractions.  It  is  the  Christ  in  our  Chris- 
tianity with  which  our  own  personal  Chris- 
tianity and  personal  helpfulness  to  others 
must  begin  and  end.  When  we  get  to 
dealing  with  the  impersonal  and  the  abstract, 
it  is  because  we  have  lost  the  personal 
Messias,  have  no  sense  of  our  own  personal- 
ness,  and  have  no  interest  in  the  personal 
Simon.  Abstractions  are  sometimes  but 
ghosts  which  indicate  how  many  living 
Simons  have  been  buried  without  a  personal 
salvation. 

There  was,  with  all  these  incidental  quali- 
ties, a  noble  and  inevitable  eloquence  in  these 
words,  when  they  fell  upon  the  ears  of  Simon. 
Simon's  soul  was  a  harp  whose  every  string 
seemed  created  and  prepared  for  that  breeze. 
Music  had  to  come,  when  those  words  and 
that  soul  touched.  The  real  Gospel  is  always 
sure  to  be  eloquent  to  any  Simon.  Having 
first  found  him,  having  got  at  him  where  he 
lives,  having  met  him  as  he  is,  its  message  rings 


268  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

throughout  the  needy,  vacant  soul  like  sa- 
cred melodies  in  an  old  and  deserted  sanctu- 
ary. There  are  echoes  of  God  in  man  which 
the  Messianic  thought  wakens  into  resdess 
harmony  of  expression.  The  real  Gospel  of 
the  Christ  has  never  failed  to  get  a  hearing 
where  it,  like  Andrew,  went  to  find  Simon.  It 
is  when  we  get  in  front  of  Christ  that  He  fails 
to  attract. 

And  a  man  does  not  always  see  the  whole 
Christ.  He  sees  the  side  of  Messias  next  to 
him.  This  thought  of  Messias — how  it  thrilled 
that  patriot  Jew.  That  was  the  small  end  of 
the  true  idea  of  the  Christ  of  God,  of  course. 
It  was  the  end  Andrew  got  hold  of ;  it  was 
the  end  which  he  knew  Simon  could  get  hold 
of.  Would  that  our  preaching  of  Christ 
could  touch  the  sentiment  of  world-wide 
patriotism !  With  Andrew  and  Simon,  the 
fortunes  of  Israel  were  dear  above  all  else ; 
and  the  enemies  which  they  desired  to 
dethrone  were  Rome  and  the  political  meth- 
ods which  made  them  a  race  of  slaves.  With 
our  modern  man,  the  fortunes  of  civil  society 
and  the  destiny  of  humanity  on  earth  are  in- 


AND   THE  MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       269 

volved  in  any  bright  hope  which  stands  at 
the  gateway  of  the  future.  Andrew  and 
Simon's  Messias  is  a  political  deliverer;  so 
also  is  the  Messias  which  the  soul  of  the 
broadest  man  craves,  a  Saviour  of  humanity 
— that  greater  Israel,  that  larger  Jerusalem — 
from  all  its  dangers.  Christ  Jesus  instandy 
grips  the  hope  of  men,  the  ancient  and  the 
modern  Simon  alike,  at  the  moment  when 
that  hope  sees  Him  as  the  Supreme  Antag- 
onist of  sin. 

The  Messias  whom  Andrew  saw  was  no 
more  great  than  his  conception  of  Him,  than 
our  Christ  is  greater  than  our  conception  of 
Him.  He  had  come  to  deliver  men  from  sin^ 
to  bind  them  to  the  on-marching  righteous- 
ness of  God,  and,  in  that  way,  to  conquer  all 
the  Romes  which  ever  might  seek  to  oppress 
them.  Every  hope  of  man  to-day  runs  forth 
to  greet  the  preacher  of  this  Christ.  Besides 
this  great  hope  at  the  heart  of  progress,  every 
genuine  feeling  of  the  dreadful  presence  of  sin, 
and  every  desire  to  be  rid  of  it ;  every  noble 
movement  of  the  unquenched  good  beneath 
the  oppressive  evil  of  life  and  every  glim- 


270  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

mer  of  desire  to  perpetuate  it ;  every  wander- 
ing dream  of  sometimes  being  true,  amidst 
so  many  evidences  of  now  being  untrue  and 
every  desire  that  that  dream  may  be  realized 
— all  the  man  there  is  left  in  us  rushes  out  to 
meet  the  evangelist  of  a  real  Messias,  and 
to  cry  :  "  How  beautiful  upon  the  mountains 
are  the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth  good  things, 
that  publisheth  peace ;  that  bringeth  good 
tidings  of  good,  that  publisheth  salvation  ; 
that  saith  unto  Zion,  '  Thy  God  reigneth.'  " 
Go  to  thy  brother.  "  He  will  not  respect  me," 
you  say  ?  No.  It  may  be  so ;  but  he  will 
respect  the  Christ  you  have  ;  and  not  you, 
but  Jesus  the  Christ  must  save  him. 

So  the  issue  of  all  this  ;  the  "  finding  "  and 
the  "  saying"  of  any  Andrew  is  the  "  bring- 
ing " — '•  He  brought  him  to  Jesus."  Our 
calls  and  preachings  are  altogether  ineffective, 
however  interesting  they  are  as  memories,  if 
they  have  not  issued  in  the  result  of  "  bring- 
ing "  our  brother  to  Jesus.  It  would,  I  admit, 
have  been  altogether  unfair  to  have  estimated 
Andrew'  s  piety  and  Christianity  simply  by 
its  visible  and  immediate  success  in  finding 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       27 1 

and  bringing  Simon.  A  man  may  be  a  very 
good  man,  and  yet  not  a  minister,  in  the 
closer  sense  of  the  word.  Often,  also,  our 
brother  may  be  out  of  our  reach ;  Simon 
might  have  refused  stubbornly  to  follow. 
These  would  not  have  made  Andrew's 
brotherliness  or  religion  less  genuine.  But 
any  Christian  ministry  must  be  most  largely 
estimated  by  the  bringing  of  men  to  Jesus. 

Remember  the  phrase  :  "  He  brought  him 
to  Jesiisy  I  cannot  think  that  the  use  of  the 
word  Simon,  and  the  words  Simon  Peter,  and 
Peter,  with  respect  to  the  same  personage,  is 
one  careless  of  distinctive  meanings.  For  ex- 
ample, I  think  Andrew  always  goes  and  at- 
taches his  personal  self  to  the  Simon-end  of 
this  great  brother  of  his,  who  is  some  day  to 
be  known  as  the  great  and  good  Peter,  whose 
dome  in  the  Rome  of  his  martyrdom  reflects 
the  interest  of  two  worlds.  Every  Andrew 
"  findeth  first  his  own  brother,  Siftion^  It  is 
a  very  human  and  most  needy  side  of  our 
brother-man  to  which  you  and  I  may  first 
come  with  our  message  and  most  helpfully. 
We  must  so  bring  our  message  to  a  man  that 


272  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

all  the  earthiness  and  impetuosity  and  other 
unsanctified  qualities  of  our  brother  like 
Simon  shall  be  gotten  hold  of.  This  is  the 
valuable  material  for  transcendent  uses,  when 
we  may  bring  it  all  to  Jesus.  Many  men 
seem  to  me  to  be  preaching  not  to  Simon,  or 
even  to  Shnon-Pcter — which  is  the  name  of 
the  half-way  house  towards  the  goal ;  the 
name  of  the  ore  with  the  gold  showing  forth 
plenteously — but  they  essay  to  address  the 
Peter  of  this  interesting  individual.  Now,  he 
is,  for  a  good  while,  in  the  evolution  of  this 
process,  and,  therefore,  a  long  way  off,  as  he 
is  a  long  way  off  in  the  evolution  of  any 
process  of  grace  which  comes  through  our 
message  unto  him  at  the  first. 

Jesus  is  always  dealing  with  this  alert  and 
ardent  man,  even  in  His  speech,  with  a  fine 
regard  for  his  progress  from  the  Simon  to  the 
Peter  of  him.  Sometimes,  even  near  to  the  last 
day  of  their  association,  the  man  for  whom 
Jesus  had  done  so  much  relapsed  into  his  old 
self,  as  when  he  went  to  sleep  in  the  garden. 
Then  Jesus  said  to  him,  "  Simon,  Simon,  sleep- 
est  thou  ?  " — as  if  He  wished  to  impress  upon 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       273 

him  the  fact  that  the  old  Simon-qualities  are 
the  last  that  ought  to  slumber  in  such  an 
hour.  So,  also,  I  think  we  may  regard  with 
care  the  evangelist's  statement  that  Andrew 
brought  Simon  "  to  Jestcs^  He  did  not  bring 
him  even  to  "  the  Messias,  which  is,  being 
interpreted,  the  Christ."  Perhaps  we  fail  to 
bring  men  to  Jesus,  just  because  we  try  to 
bring  them  to  some  theological  conception  of 
Him.  Jesus  is  the  very  human  name,  which, 
upon  the  lips  of  the  true  preacher,  makes  the 
minister  himself  lose  all  officialism,  and  brings 
to  the  brother-man  the  picture  of  our  great 
elder  brother  who  had  already  so  brothered 
Andrew  into  the  family  of  God  that  Andrew, 
through  his  brotherliness,  had  brought  Simon 
to  Jesus.  We  shall  reach  the  divinity  through 
the  humanity  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  minister's  message  and  method  seem 
to  me  very  simple  and  very  clear.  I  am 
willing  to  risk  the  danger  of  men  failing  to 
reach  Christ,  in  all  His  high-priestly  relations 
unto  them,  if  only  they  may  be  brought  to 
the  man,  Jesus  ;  and  that  is  to  brother  them 
into  the  family  of  the  Sons  of  God.     This  will 


274  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

discover  to  each  man  his  divine  sonship. 
This  involves  conversion,  of  course.  Simon 
as  Simon  is  nothing  but  a  human  "son  of 
Jonas."  Jacob,  unfound  by  the  Man- Angel 
with  whom  he  wrestled  until  the  breaking  of 
the  day,  was  only  a  son  of  Isaac,  and  he 
was  "  the  supplanter."  When  his  thigh  was 
out  of  joint  and  the  chrysalis  of  time  had 
yielded  forth,  in  the  breaking,  a  winged  and 
eternal  soul,  now  in  brother-relations  with 
mankind  whom  he  had  hitherto  treated  in 
such  an  unbrotherly  fashion,  he  was  a  son  of 
God,  and  he  was  renamed  properly — **  Prince 
of  Israel."  This  is  conversion  in  the  Old 
Testament.  The  hint  of  the  incarnation  of 
God  in  man  is  given  in  the  "  Man-Angel," 
with  whom  he  wrestled  for  his  true  self.  So, 
also,  in  the  New  Testament  and  with  Simon. 
When  he  is  brought  to  Jesus,  Jesus  calls 
forth  his  divine  sonship — that  is,  his  sonship 
unto  God.  He  begins  in  him  a  process  of 
regeneration,  by  which  his  sonship  unto  God 
is  made  the  supreme  thing  in  and  of  his  char- 
acter and  life.  Andrew  has  done  all  he  can, 
when   he   brings   his   brother   man  into  the 


AND  THE  MINISTER'S  MESSAGE       275 

range  and  radiance  of  Jesus'  brotherhood. 
Jesus  says  to  him  then,  "Thou  art  Simon. 
Thou  shalt  be  Cephas,  or  Peter,  *  the  rock- 
man.^  "  Men  are  potentially  sons  of  God,  as 
well  as  sons  of  their  earthly  fathers.  To 
bring  them  to  Jesus  is  to  bring  them  where 
this  sonship  divine  may  be  struck  out,  at  the 
depths  of  character,  and  developed  to  infinite 
significance.  This  alone  is  Christian  preach- 
ing. 

Let  us  now  have  done  with  the  words: 
"  commonplace  "  and  "  ordinary  "  in  regard 
to  any  Andrew.  No  man  who  thus  be- 
gins his  ministry,  or  whose  ministry  is 
begun  for  him  in  such  an  experience  as 
Andrew's,  can  be  ordinary  or  common- 
place. The  good  news,  announcing  a  treaty 
of  peace  consummated  between  two  nations, 
makes  the  copper  wire  beneath  the  waves  of 
ocean  as  valuable  as  it  is.  Your  message 
will  exalt  the  messenger  to  his  true  place. 

In  the  presence  of  Simon  Peter,  whom  he 
brought  to  Jesus,  and  in  the  presence  of  Jesus 
Himself,  whose  light  alone  discovers  the 
value  of  souls,  how  great  any  Andrew  seems. 


276  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

He  is  great,  because  he  did  a  great  thing. 
Without  empire,  he  annexed  more  than  an  em- 
pire ;  even  a  creator  and  ruler  of  empires  he 
brought  to  the  kingdom  of  the  King  of  kings. 
Without  genius,  he  has  influenced  the  world 
of  history  as  no  man  who  was  only  a  genius 
has  done.  What  a  different  world  this  is, 
what  different  pages  are  in  its  history,  what 
a  different  future  lies  before  it,  because 
Andrew  brought  Simon  to  Jesus.  When  he 
delivered  him  over  to  Jesus,  the  rough  and  re- 
calcitrant but  most  rich  ore  was  in  the  hands 
of  One  who  should  extract  all  its  gold,  coin  it 
and  make  it  bear  His  face  forever.  Andrew's 
hand  is  beneath  the  structure  of  our  Chris- 
tian civilization  as  is  that  of  none  of  Israel's 
tyrants.  He  utters  his  voice  through  the 
trumpet  notes  of  Simon  Peter,  and  sends  his 
influence  along  the  larger  movements  im- 
pelled by  that  impetuous,  noble  life. 

What  a  crisis  it  was  in  his  own  religious 
career,  when  he  waited  to  take  the  first  step 
towards  his  own  brother  Simon,  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  !  His  going  to  him  at  once  settled 
his  own  place  in  history  and  in  glory,  and 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   MESSAGE       277 

gave  a  new  turn  and  stronger  impulse  to  the 
stream  of  goodness  and  truth.  The  poor 
Methodist  preacher  whom  Charles  H.  Spur- 
geon  heard  one  night  was  an  inferior  soul  to 
all  but  Jesus  and  history  and  humanity,  for 
whom  he  found  that  mighty  man.  The  poorer 
monk  of  the  mountain  country,  whose  words 
roused  Savonarola  to  become  a  Protestant  out 
of  season  and  a  Republican  before  the  time, 
had  the  same  sort  of  real  greatness.  Oh,  ye 
who  here  start  out  to  be  the  Andrews  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  nation,  know  ye  that,  by 
the  miracle  of  a  true  personality  awakening 
another  in  the  Light  of  Lights,  and  by  the  in- 
fluence of  a  message  of  Truth  passing  through 
a  true  personality,  yours  is  the  power  to  bring 
a  greater  soul  unto  the  Truth.  This  is  a  reve- 
lation of  the  Godlikeness  of  man. 


LECTURE  VII 

THE    SPIRITUAL    LIFE   AND 
ITS  COMMUNICATION  TO  MEN 


LECTURE  VII 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND  ITS 
COMMUNICATION  TO  MEN 

I  KNOW  that  this  sounds  priestly  enough ; 
but  men  will  have  priests — you  or  those 
who  have  less  to  communicate  unto 
them.  God  grant  that  what  we  have  just 
found  of  that  which  you  have  to  communi- 
cate may  reach  them  in  power — even  in  the 
power  of  the  Highest.  I  must  now  condense 
and  proceed  rapidly  over  the  interesting 
realms  of  thought  and  conviction  as  to  all 
themes  stretching  out  before  me,  considering 
that  I  must  soon  conclude  the  observations 
and  suggestions  to  be  offered  to  you  in  this 
course  of  lectures. 

I  will  say,  first,  that,  anticipating  and  re- 
joicing in  the  communication  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  to  men,  through  the  life  and  labours  of 
the  minister,  the  Spiritual  Life  itself  must  be 
supreme  and  determinative  in  him,  in  order 

that  the  pastor's  experience  shall  have  right- 
281 


282  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

ful  place  and  influence,  especially  upon  his 
sermon.  I  say  ''experience''  because  his  life 
is  a  life  with  men,  and  all  officialism  must 
vanish  away  in  the  interaction  of  his  brother- 
liness  with  that  of  his  fellow  men. 

Yesterday  I  attempted  to  study  our  mes- 
sage and  its  origin,  by  what  I  hope  you  will 
always  employ  when  you  are  anxious  to 
reach  the  simplicities  and  sublimities  of  any 
Scripture  theme — namely,  the  method  of  ex- 
position,— to  enforce  the  consideration  that 
the  man  who  will  most  likely  be  effective 
as  a  preacher  is  born  out  of  a  Christlike  ex- 
perience with  humanity  in  the  closest  rela- 
tion of  personality.  Now,  suppose  you  have 
come  to  be  a  preacher  by  some  other  proc- 
ess. Then  you  need  them  all  the  more,  and 
at  once,  to  justly  estimate  the  value  of  the 
pastor's  experience  with  men,  in  its  influence 
upon  your  preaching. 

A  large  and  deep  Spiritual  Life  will  make  it 
certain  that  the  preacher  and  pastor  will  not 
be  separated.  It  has  been  often  said  of  this 
or  that  minister;  "He  is  a  great  preacher, 
but  he  is  no  pastor ; "  and  there  is  a  way  of 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     283 

Speaking,  upon  the  part  of  the  uninstructed 
youth,  which  makes  one  sorry  for  the  speaker, 
when  he  says  of  this  or  that  preacher  :  "  He 
is  a  master  in  the  pulpit,  and  he  speaks  to  so 
many  people  and  so  powerfully,  that  no  one 
expects  him  to  do  pastoral  work."  Be  sure 
there  is  a  most  vicious  illusion  here.  It  is 
an  illusion  that  comes  not  upon  the  least 
amply  endowed  of  us,  perhaps.  It  certainly 
envelops  some  of  the  most  promising  who 
seek  the  pulpit  as  a  throne  of  influence  and 
blessing.  It  would  not  be  so  sad,  if  only 
dullards  fancied  the  pulpit  to  be  safely  en- 
tered and  made  effective  by  one,  who,  either 
has  no  inclination,  or  thinks  he  has  not  time, 
for  shepherding  the  flock.  Some  of  us  who 
began  the  ministry  with  the  vocabulary  of 
what  is  called  the  "sermon-maker"  upon 
our  undisciplined  and  academic  lips,  have 
dropped  such  words  from  our  vocabularies  : 
and  likewise  very  few  of  us  speak  of  the 
shepherding  which  one  finds  the  satisfaction 
and  reward  in  doing  as  "  parochial  work." 
It  is  not  work  at  all,  but  the  joyful  expres- 
sion of  a  personal  Spiritual  Life  coming  out 


284  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

of  one's  acquaintance  with  Jesus,  and  hurry- 
ing to  get  all  humanity  acquainted  with  Him, 
Who  is  the  life  and  light  of  men. 

Some  of  us  have  sorrowful  recollections 
and  many  repentances,  deep  and  true,  that 
we  ever  so  slighted  and  impoverished  our 
pulpit,  by  agreeing  with  our  poor  selves  that 
it  is  at  all  possible  to  create,  in  the  study  and 
pulpit  alone,  even  so  unimportant  a  being 
as  a  pulpiteer.  As  I  have  hinted,  the  only 
thing  that  will  lift  you  out  of  this  mistake,  if 
you  have  made  it,  and  are  looking  towards 
preaching  as  a  function  and  operation  supe- 
rior to  your  Christian  experience  and  influ- 
ence as  the  brother  and  friend  of  those  to 
whom  you  have  spoken  or  to  whom  you 
are  yet  to  speak,  is  a  mightier  Spiritual 
Life  in  your  Christ.  You  must  have  that 
spiritual  animation  and  outgoing,  through 
experienced  truth  and  sanctified  brotherli- 
ness,  which  alone,  at  the  first,  constituted 
you  a  minister,  and  which  will  all  along 
make  you  something  more  than  a  maker  of 
sermons,  even  the  best,  or  a  social  emissary, 
even  the   noblest.     This  will  make  you  in- 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     285 

deed  a  minister  of  Christ  unto  His  and  your 
brethren. 

I  have  observed  for  many  years  that  no 
man,  however  masterfully  he  began  as  a 
Christian  in  the  pulpit,  who  has  been  either 
unwilling  or  unable  to  take  in  upon  his  heart 
and  life  those  tides  of  human  experience  with 
truth  which  he  himself  has  elicited  from  his 
own  people  and  which  naturally  run  towards 
him,  has  kept  his  fresh  and  early  masterful- 
ness. Any  slightest  study  of  the  subject  has 
shown  what  he  might  be  now,  if  these  tides 
had  come  into  his  own  experience  in  thought 
and  life.  There  is  a  distinct  moral  weakness 
which  evidences  itself  in  a  man's  willingness 
to  utter  a  message,  herald  a  divine  truth,  or 
pierce  with  argument  and  appeal  through 
some  long  established  habit  or  false  opinion, 
without  being  ready  to  take  care  of  the  re- 
sults, especially  if  he  succeeds.  If  he  does 
not  succeed — what  is  the  worth  of  preach- 
ing? If  he  does  succeed,  the  consequences 
are  not  in  his  quiet  study,  or  in  his  echoing 
pulpit.  He  has  done  even  the  least  towards 
dealing  with  them  manfully  when  he  slips 


286  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

the  sermon  from  its  lovely  case,  and  it  is 
placed  along  with  the  rest  of  the  artillery 
which  has  been  discharged — begging  pardon 
here  for  any  reference  to  a  warrior's  life,  in  a 
connection  which  does  not  reveal  the  pres- 
ence of  courage ! 

Admitting  that  his  sermon  has  been  the 
very  best  kind  of  a  sermon,  the  consequences 
are  very  human.  They  are  to  be  found  in 
flesh  and  blood ;  they  are  neither  literary, 
artistic,  or  even  theological  results.  They 
tingle  with  human  life,  and  somedmes  bleed. 
A  man  who  has  not  the  honour  to  look 
up,  as  well  as  care  for,  the  children  born 
of  his  life-expression,  is  certainly  lacking 
lamentably  in  common  morals ;  the  reaction 
will  come  upon  his  own  character  so  seri- 
ously, that,  by  and  by,  the  children  of  his 
brain  and  heart — the  ideas  and  emodons 
which  he  generates  and  sends  forth — will  be 
as  untrue  and  lawless  as  he  is.  I  have  known 
men  to  accede  to  the  foolish  proposition  that 
true  preaching  may  live  and  grow  as  some- 
thing separate  from  the  human  life  for  which 
it  is  made,  until,  in  each  case,  all  the  human 


AND   ITS  COMMUNICATION   TO  MEN     287 

element  which  his  lofty  nature  had  inherited 
— that  stream  of  subconscious  kindliness  that 
came  from  his  ancestors,  and  the  currents  of 
experience  with  sin  and  sorrow,  and  love  and 
joy  upon  the  part  of  his  comrades,  given 
over  to  him  in  earlier  life — had  vanished 
from  him.  All  was  lost  in  the  sands  glit- 
tering like  his  rhetorical  movements,  and 
all  the  more  arid  because  they  gleamed 
under  a  tropical  sun.  No  amount  of  argu- 
ment can  instruct  a  man,  who  has  fallen 
away  from  his  human  brethren,  so  far 
that  he  feels,  as  I  have  known  preachers  to 
feel,  that  they  must  not  risk  on  Wednesday 
winding  their  way  into  the  heart  of  some 
wretched  man's  problem  to  which  the  door 
of  entrance  was  found  by  the  preacher  in  his 
sermon  last  Sunday,  and  for  fear  the  preacher 
may  encounter  some  aspect  of  truth,  or  phase 
of  iniquity,  or  twist  of  doubt  which  might 
throw  him  off  the  track  of  his  proposed  ad- 
vance homiletically,  and  make  it  awkward  for 
him  to  dodge  a  fresh,  commanding,  human 
situation  next  Sunday  morning.  Better  a 
hundred  times  be  vitalized  by  some  human 


288  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

being's  clinging  and  desperate  hand,  espe- 
cially if  you  have  inspired  him  to  stretch  it 
out  of  the  dark,  even  if  that  hand  in  its 
agony  of  reaching  for  succour  should  tear 
your  sermon  to  pieces.  A  man  is  better 
than  a  book,  to  any  preacher  who  sees  how 
wicked  is  his  wickedness  in  the  light  of 
Christ's  holiness,  or  feels  how  wretched  is 
his  spiritual  poverty,  when  men  around  him 
are  praising  his  virtues,  or  knows  how  puny 
or  shrivelled  is  his  arm  to  take  hold  of  an 
athletic  angel  who  is  certainly  the  greatest 
blessing  of  his  life,  if  only  he  would  wrestle 
with  him  until  the  breaking  of  the  day. 

The  true  minister,  in  whom  this  preacher 
and  pastor  have  to  live  together,  has  no  per- 
plexities or  worries  or  pains  comparable  to 
those  he  experiences,  when  they  fall  out  and 
persist  in  having  two  camps.  The  preacher 
in  the  minister  is  likeliest  to  be  the  jealous 
one.  He  loves  his  cloister  for  meditation 
and  his  study  for  amplifying  and  refining  his 
mental  product.  The  pastor  of  the  minister 
is  not  so  much  given  to  pride  of  mind,  for  he 
has  the  chastening  influence  of  his  fellows, 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     289 

with  whom  and  against  w^hom  he  must  meas- 
ure himself,  when  their  need  is  quickest  and 
his  pulses  are  warmest.  He  knows  how  near 
he  is  to  sinning  their  worst  sin,  or  falling  into 
their  grayest  prejudice.  He  knows  also,  by 
the  touch  of  them  upon  him,  how  much  more 
they  expect  of  him  when  he  shall  suddenly 
transform  himself  as  the  good  friend  of  the 
men  about  him,  appearing  in  his  other  form 
— the  preacher  of  the  next  Sunday  morning. 

This  next  Sunday's  preacher  is  a  being, 
whom,  by  the  way,  the  pastor  very  much  re- 
veres, whose  jealousy  of  the  pastor's  appar- 
ently leisurely  use  of  time  during  this  last 
week  has  been  poignant  but  is  now  forgiven, 
— a  being  with  large  opportunities  and  lib- 
erties, such  as  no  other  profession  or  trade 
permits,  and  so  protected  at  what  used  to  be 
called  the  sacred  desk,  that  no  one  will  deny, 
or  confute,  or  even  ask  a  question  while  he 
delivers  to  the  people,  who  have  been  living 
with  this  same  man  as  pastor  at  short  range, 
his  latest  discourse. 

It  is  amazing  how  the  pastor  in  us  looks 
up  to  the  preacher  in  all  of  us.     His  latest 


290  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

discourse — did  I  say  it  ?  So,  if  it  is  success- 
ful at  all  in  stirring  noble  emotions,  in  rip- 
ping up  as  with  the  plowshare  the  tough 
sod  of  tradition,  in  softening  the  soil  thus 
made  bare,  it  will  send  that  same  pastor 
out  to  see  that  the  seed  is  planted  and 
the  harvest  made  more  sure.  Would  that 
the  preacher  in  us  always  so  loyally  revered 
and  loved  the  pastor !  Does  it  not  seem  a 
condition  of  inextricable  confusion  and  mon- 
strous waste  of  power,  when  there  are  two 
of  every  minister ;  one  a  pastor  and  one  a 
preacher — and  just  then  you  marvelled  why 
I  could  put  the  pastor  first.  Be  advised  that, 
when  this  duplex  arrangement  is  even  at  its 
best,  it  is  the  minister  who  is  not  very  far 
from  duplicity,  indeed. 

There  has  to  be  a  sort  of  over-mind  in  him 
to  decide  questions  as  to  the  use  of  time, 
his  prominence  as  a  citizen  before  the  public 
in  order  to  help  them  sincerely,  and  such 
like,  until  the  over-mind  of  the  Lord  God 
fully  possesses  the  minister,  and  the  eye  be- 
comes single  and  is  full  of  light.  Then  the 
matter  becomes  more  simple,  for  a  passion 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     29I 

for  Spiritual  effectiveness  will  determine  his 
course,  all  other  things  being  equal. 

One  surprisingly  interesting  bit  of  biog- 
raphy comes  to  my  mind  here.  One  of  the 
chief  happinesses  of  my  life  was  to  note  the 
effect  of  a  mighty  accession  of  spiritual 
power  to  the  soul  of  the  late  Dr.  George 
Purvis,  the  beloved  pastor,  the  eloquent 
preacher,  the  mighty  minister  of  God.  He 
passed  from  being  the  correct  philosophical 
master  of  exposition,  entreaty,  and  prophetic 
power,  unto  being  the  rescuer  of  men,  the  up- 
builder  of  character  from  ruins  into  temples 
of  God,  one  of  the  most  constantly  successful 
winners  of  our  poor  humanity  in  its  lost  es- 
tate, to  its  regeneration  and  sanctification  by 
God's  grace,  whom  I  have  ever  known,  or 
New  York  ever  saw.  Successor  of  John 
Hall,  and  a  man  of  scholarly  tastes,  he  went 
out  after  his  preaching  on  Sunday  and  met 
the  results  of  his  preaching  in  the  mani- 
fold appearance  of  them,  joy,  sorrow,  re- 
morse, repentance.  A  newly  wrought  cour- 
age grasped  and  was  waiting  for  the  next 
command.     All  occurrences  seemed  forms  of 


292  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

the  result  of  true  preaching.  He  met  them 
all,  and,  profound  and  exhaustive  student  as 
he  was — for  he  was  no  less  a  student  after  he 
became  the  Fifth  Avenue  minister  than  he 
was  when  professor  in  Princeton  Theological 
Seminary,  a  few  months  before, — the  minis- 
ter opened  the  preacher  to  the  pastor  within 
him,  and  opened  the  pastor  to  the  preacher 
within  him.  They  wrought  together  in  love, 
and  so  were  held  to  each  other  within  a  com- 
prehensive personality.  They  were  not  lost 
in  one  another,  as  we  say,  but  they  were 
found  in  one  another.  Men  and  women 
struggled  on  their  knees,  while  this  personal 
friend  appealed  to  God  for  them  in  prayer, 
as  the  preacher,  only  a  few  hours  before,  had 
been  appealing  to  them  in  behalf  of  God. 

There  is  no  greater  honour  to  be  offered 
a  human  being  in  this  world  than  to  be 
chosen  by  God  to  this  holy  priesthood,  and 
to  be  chosen  by  human  beings,  when  God 
has  been  brought  near  to  them  by  the  priest' 
hood  which  works  from  above  and  through 
the  preacher — to  be  chosen,  I  say,  by  hu- 
man  beings,   to   bear  unto  God,  with  sobs 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     293 

of  contrition  and  cry  for  personal  holiness, 
the  souls  and  destinies  of  those  whom  we 
love   most  when  we   try  to   help  them.     A 
man  must  live  for  such  power  as  this,  and 
he   can   afford   to  lose  everything  and  suf- 
fer everything  for  the  Spiritual  Life  which 
gives  and  keeps  for  him  this  privilege.     My 
friend    did    not    get    his   new   power   as  a 
preacher  from  his  having  resolved  on  being 
a  pastor,  and  his  having  started  out  to  exer- 
cise   properly   the   functions   of   that   office. 
Doubtless  even  this,  in  many  cases,  would 
be  an   occasion   for   the  working  of   God's 
grace  in  us  towards  a  better  spiritual  state. 
It  was  not  because  he  had  been  a  professor 
in  Princeton  Seminary,  and  was  now  going 
to   be   a   minister   in   a   great   metropolitan 
church,  that  he   underwent  this  transforma- 
tion in  the  minister's  life  and  career.     It  oc- 
curred contrariwise.     He  went  from  a  church 
in  a  large  city  without  an  appearance  of  his 
possible  self  in  the  way  of  ministerial  suc- 
cess ;  and  he  became  a  professor,  and,  fortu- 
nately for  the  world,  his  struggle  was  instant 
and  primary  in  all  its  aspects.     He  struggled 


294  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

for  a  deeper  spiritual  life,  for  its  own  sake. 
When  it  came,  one  of  the  first  evidences  of 
its  authentic  and  comprehensive  power  was 
the  new  minister  himself,  who  knew  nothing 
of  the  envy  on  the  part  of  the  preacher  when 
the  pastor  took  time  to  find  and  attend  to 
the  results  of  the  preacher's  preaching.  The 
man  seemed  to  have  been  so  reconstituted 
into  a  personal  missionary,  whose  search  for 
his  brethren  and  whose  passion  for  helping 
them  to  God  as  their  sole  strength  and  ref- 
uge were  new  vitalities,  that  anything  he  did 
was  knit  in  vital  process  to  everything  that 
he  did,  and  all  that  he  did  was  the  manifes- 
tation of  this  all-compelling  love  for  Christ 
and  the  men  whom  He  came  to  save. 

Now,  to  pass  to  an  entirely  different  man : 
a  similar  experience  was  that  of  my  dear 
successor  in  Baltimore,  Dr.  Maltbie  Babcock. 
A  predecessor  knows  something  of  the 
human  material  in  the  loved  church  he 
leaves.  He  is  most  interested  if  his  successor 
shall  be  blessed  with  certain  desirable  con- 
sequences of  his  ministerial  activity,  to  find 
what  is  distinctive  in  him,  which  enables  him 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     295 

to  grow  much  fruit.     "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them,"  not  by  their  pastoral  calls  ;  not 
even  by  their  sermons.     When  that  sapless 
mechanic   called   the   sermon-maker,  makes 
what  is  called  "  a  pastoral  call,"  there  is  prob- 
ably less  reason  to  expect  anything  so  natural 
and  living  as  fruit,  than  at  any  other  time  in 
the  history  of  our  planet.     But  when  a  real 
man,    who    has   all    musical   instruments   in 
him,   whose  soul   is  a   diversified  landscape 
sunlit   or  drenched   with  the  abundant  rain 
from   heaven,  comes   to   visit   you  as  your 
shepherd,  then  you  may  be  sure  these  new 
forces  will  communicate  themselves,  as  they 
did  in  the  radiancy  and  harmoniousness  of 
my  friend's  religion,  with  amazing  unity  of 
powers.      This  man    who    preached    like   a 
pastor  in  the  pulpit,  because  he  had  touched 
and  known  men  with  the  intimacy  of  love, 
and   who   shepherded    his   people  with   the 
appealing    warmth   and   light    of  the   truth 
which     he     preached,     still     burning     from 
his    brain    as    Michelangelo's    little    candle 
burned   from   the   socket   in  which  it  hung 
upon   his   brow — this   man    was   indeed   re- 


296  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

sistless,  with  his  Christ  who  said  through 
His  servant,  "Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door 
and  knock."  I  think  he  had  a  oneness  of 
self,  an  utter  deliverance  from  the  multitudi- 
nous or  even  manifold  interests  which  make 
a  Babel  often  within  our  soul  by  their  self- 
assertion — a  continuity  in  impact  which 
came  from  having  one  thing,  and  only  one 
thing,  to  do,  and  that  was  to  be  Christ's 
minister.  Behind  the  result  of  his  ministra- 
tion upon  the  most  dissimilar  men,  and  with 
consequences  in  the  direction  of  their  new 
religious  effectiveness  the  most  different,  was 
the  man,  filled  with  God.  He  thus  became  a 
man  who  ensphered  what  he  held  within  him 
so  perfectly,  that  he  was  a  safe  and  imitable 
human  being  wherever  he  was  and  whatever 
he  did. 

We  must  acknowledge  that  in  persons 
entering  the  pulpit,  often  with  highest  hopes 
and  best  prospects,  an  erroneous  and  almost 
sinful  disproportionateness  of  interest  and 
emphasis  is  given  to  speaking  in  the  pulpit, 
to  preaching.  It  is  given  even  to  sermoniz- 
ing— which  is  about  the  cheapest  account  of 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     297 

what  is  sometimes  cheaper  than  the  term 
itself — in  comparison  with  parochial  work, 
such  as  requires  pastoral  visitation,  and 
personal  attention  to  men  as  men.  Labour- 
ing with  human  beings,  when  one  is  outside 
of  the  pulpit,  to  bring  them  into  vital  relation- 
ship with  the  truths  which  it  is  the  pulpit's 
duty  and  privilege  to  proclaim,  ought  not  to 
be  thus  discounted.  What,  I  ask,  will  reveal 
this  disproportionateness,  and  save  us  from 
the  malady  which  fosters  it  in  our  minds  ? 
Nothing,  I  answer,  but  a  triumphant  Spiritual 
Life  within  the  minister.  I  bear  you  witness 
that,  as  one's  Spiritual  Life  deepens,  it  grows 
appalling  for  the  preacher  to  realize  how 
much  his  pulpit  has  lost,  both  of  the  human 
element  and  of  the  divine  blessing,  by  his 
having  forsaken  so  largely  his  personal  help- 
fulness to  his  fellow-mortals. 

Our  best  doctrines  fade.  It  is  a  strange 
but  insistent  fact  that  those  who  work  even 
hopefully  with  mortal  beings  most  constantly, 
and  in  full  view  of  the  personality  of  each 
one, — these  have  most  of  conviction  and 
illumination     and     confidence,     when     they 


298  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

speak  on  immortality.  It  is  so  with  re- 
gard to  almost  every  doctrine.  We  take 
it  out  of  the  pulpit,  when  we  have  done  our 
best  with  it  in  explanation  and  proof ;  and 
it  is  not  any  more  vital  than  our  small  and 
strained  vitality  has  made  it,  or  allowed  it  to 
be.  We  take  it  out,  I  say  now,  unto  man 
after  man,  and  humanize  it,  put  its  abstract 
values  under  a  focus  of  life,  with  flesh  and 
blood  to  confront  and  transform,  if  possible  ; 
then  we  bring  it  back,  and — this  has  been 
my  experience — far  from  being  harmed,  or 
marred,  or  even  scratched,  it  lives,  and  is 
henceforth  found  in  us  as  preachers,  pulsing 
and  throbbing  with  human  interests,  redolent 
with  life,  and  vocal  with  music  granted  to  it 
by  experience.  Never  may  the  pulpit  dis- 
dain human  experience. 

I  cannot  now  stop  to  mention  the  doctrines 
that  are  constantly  growing  weak,  and  are 
at  last  devitalized,  because  they  are  only 
preached.  None  has  kept  the  uses  among 
men  which  they  involve. 

I  assure  you  your  shepherding  of  men  will 
determine  your  effectiveness  as  preachers  and 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     299 

deliver  you  from  all  debilitating  impersonal- 
ness  as  preachers.  Your  greatest  gain  will 
be  your  sense  of  personality  with  an  audience 
— yours  and  theirs.  If  you  are  an  eloquent 
man,  your  spirituality  will  have  allied  itself 
with  your  utterance,  to  make  your  audience 
personal.  And  you  can  never  deal  with  an 
audience,  unless  you  deal  with  them  person- 
ally. I  am  sure  of  this — no  minister  can  deal 
with  an  audience  personally,  inside  of  the 
walls  of  an  audience-room,  if  he  does  not 
know  how,  and  if  he  does  not  love  most  to 
deal  with  the  human  person,  as  he  maintains 
intercourse  when  he  is  on  intimate  terms  of 
friendship,  or  when  he  is  urging  his  hostility 
to  evil  in  his  friend's  mind  without  any  show 
of  friendliness,  and  yet  with  the  sincerest 
friendship — man  to  man.  You  w^ill  obtain 
the  secret  of  gathering  your  audience  into  a 
personality,  with  whom  you  speak  naturally 
and  effectively,  only  by  first  and  often  sit- 
ting down  with  some  loved  man  and  learning 
the  art  of  persuasion  there.  Let  me  talk  of 
this,  in  full  view  of  the  fact  that  I  have  said 
something  of  this  element  of  personality  in 


300  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

the  text,  and  its  power  of  finding  the  man  in 
you  to  preach  it,  or  in  your  finding  the  text 
for  your  discourse.  The  text  for  a  preacher 
has  the  vividness  and  potency  of  his  person- 
ality. An  impersonal  preacher  can  take  the 
vitality  out  of  the  most  glowing  text,  if  he 
permits  his  audience  to  be  impersonal.  If  he 
does  not  gather,  out  of  all  the  human  beings 
before  him,  some  fused  and  realizable  human 
reality,  not  at  whom  he  preaches,  nor  to  whom 
he  preaches,  but  with  whom  he  lives  his  spirit- 
ual life  in  the  discourse,  he  will  not  minister 
to  them.  He  must  find  and  rejoice  in  the 
personality  of  his  congregation. 

Wendell  Phillips  said :  "  A  master  of 
eloquence  is  a  gentleman  conversing  with 
other  gendemen,"  and  his  friend,  George 
William  Curtis,  tells  us  he  embodied  this 
definition.  I  have  heard  him  often,  and 
when  this  gentleman  was  very  fiery ;  and 
then,  I  must  say,  the  people  to  whom  he  was 
speaking  might  well  have  doubted  if  the 
limits  of  courteous  conversation  had  not  been 
passed,  both  by  the  stormful  and  sudden 
thrust  like   lightning,   and   the    burning    of 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     301 

traditional  tinder  when  the  lightning  touched 
it.  But  all  must  have  confessed  that,  in  this 
drastic  and  awe-inspiring  kind  of  speech,  the 
old-style  oratory  was  happily  transformed  by 
this  man,  as  it  was,  even  more,  by  Abraham 
Lincoln.  These  men  knew  how  to  converse 
with  audiences,  even  at  their  worst. 

I  doubt  not  of  these  masters  of  law  and 
persuasion  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  conversing  with  the  judges, 
it  must  be  said  that  they  have  the  best  man- 
ner of  discourse,  when  each  of  them  is  given 
an  opportunity  to  talk  along  without  inter- 
ruption by  the  court,  and  when  he  expects  a 
favourable  verdict.  He  is  never  out  of  touch 
with  that  mood  of  the  court's  general  mind 
which  might  ask  a  question,  and  at  any  time. 
My  father,  who  was  a  lawyer,  told  me  often 
that  if  I  ever  reached  effectiveness,  it  must 
be  by  first  treating  my  audience  as  a  jury, 
from  whom  I  ought  not  to  go  away  without  a 
verdict  in  favour  of  my  great  Client,  who, 
for  the  moment,  had  placed  His  Cause  in  my 
hand.  He  said,  also,  that  I  ought  to  have 
in  mind  the  counsel  on  the  other  side,  who, 


302  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

often,  would  be  more  able,  who  would  have 
the  advantage  of  following  me,  and  who, 
whether  I  saw  him  or  not  in  the  audience, 
was  sure  to  rise  up  to  the  consciousness  of 
that  jury  and  argue  the  other  side. 

We  know  what  a  wholesome  effect  is 
produced  with  respect  to  a  man's  pulpit  tones, 
when,  for  example,  some  brother  arises  to  say 
that  Dr.  Smith  is  wanted  by  the  friends  of  a 
lady  dying  in  yonder  street.  The  pulpit  airs 
and  sanctimonious  tones — the  singsonging, 
and  even  the  fearful  explosives — depart  from 
our  speech  when  a  man  has  to  meet  the 
natural  current  of  humanity.  No  greater 
than  these  are  the  beneficent  results  which 
come  to  us  when  we  are  taking  our  best  truth, 
our  most  beloved  view  of  things,  our  finest 
vision  of  the  future,  into  personal  and  hand 
to  hand  intimacy  with  others,  and  especially 
with  one  other.  We  have  to  make  them  real. 
How  much  better  that  they  are  real !  Han- 
dling your  truth  in  a  friendly  manner,  or  with 
any  truth,  in  courageous  brotherliness  in  the 
actual  fight  for  a  certain  man's  safety,  will 
ruin  all  pretentious  proprietorship  you  may 


AND  ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     303 

have  seemed  to  acquire.  Such  an  experience 
makes  one  feel  how  abominable  it  is  to  ar- 
rogate in  order  that  he  may  be  authoritative. 

From  all  these  weaknesses  and  unto  all 
strength  flowing  from  the  fountain  of  per- 
sonality, nothing  is  so  sure  to  deliver  you  as 
a  rich  Spiritual  Life,  lived  lovingly  towards 
your  fellow  beings,  and  lived  for  each  one  of 
them  personally. 

Your  ability  to  communicate  the  Spiritual 
Life  will  depend  largely  upon  the  relation  of 
your  spiritual  growth  with  your  people  to 
their  spiritual  growth  with  you.  The  truest 
expression  of  your  inner  being  will  be  found 
in  the  duty  and  privilege  of  prayer.  In  per- 
sonal association,  and  in  public  assemblage, 
it  is  yours  literally,  and,  of  course,  spiritually 
— that  is,  by  your  personality,  presence,  and 
atmosphere — to  lead  in  prayer — I  like  the 
old  phrase,  especially  as  describing  the  min- 
ister's outpouring  of  his  growing  life  in  the 
leadership  of  his  people. 

Yet,  I  confess,  I  approach  the  subject  of 
the  minister's  prayer  as  related  to  his  Spirit- 
ual Life,  as  I  trust  with  only  the  hesitations, 


304  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

as  well  as  the  convictions,  which  are  born  of 
reverence.  Just  as  there  is  no  action  of  the 
spirit  of  a  man  so  premised  on  infinite  reali- 
ties, and  so  inevitably  concluded  in  infinite 
sanctities  as  that  of  prayer — so,  also,  there  is 
no  action  so  capable,  in  its  failure,  of  profani- 
ties. An  insincere  man  will  clog  the  way  to 
God  for  a  whole  multitude  of  sincere  men, 
with  his  pietistic,  but  quite  unconscious  ex- 
ploiting of  his  personal  insincerities,  in  public 
prayer.  A  true  man's  prayer  is  a  manifesta- 
tion of  humanity  at  its  truest ;  and  it  is  one  of 
the  most  appealing  revelations  of  the  truth  it- 
self. I  have  witnessed  a  skillful  rhetorician  at 
prayer,  slipping  and  sliding  and  falling  on  icy 
periods  which  gleamed  and  glanced  beneath 
his  agile  feet.  He  was  successful  only  when 
he  executed  some  figures  as  a  skater  in  tri- 
umph. He  approached  no  goal  worth  while. 
He  was  a  devotee  of  cold  weather ;  and  we 
who  looked  to  be  led  by  him,  but  were  only 
amazed  at  his  most  brilliant  moment,  were 
nearly  frozen.  He  had  chosen  the  wintry 
side  of  the  infinite,  perforce.  On  the  other 
hand,    I   have  heard   an   untutored   cobbler 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     305 

use  the  old  phrase,  and  seek  to  "  enter  the 
presence-chamber  of  the  Most  High,"  and  go 
on  melting  everything  with  his  summery  soul. 
I  remember  him,  as  he  would  forget  his 
hardly  acquired  language  of  pulpit  artistry, 
and  press  forward  through  gates  of  awe  and 
love,  until  God  Himself  seemed  to  hold  him 
up,  while  he  asked  and  obtained  blessings  be- 
yond the  measure  of  his  speech  or  mental 
girth — and  this  indeed  was  prayer.  His 
implied  intimacies  were  adorations.  His 
evident  friendship  with  God  was  a  fact  first 
originated  in  what  God  had  some  time  said 
to  him,  not  in  what  he  had  dared  to  say  to 
God.  He  had  known,  in  himself,  the  mo- 
ment when  Jesus  said  to  His  disciples : 
"  Henceforth  I  call  you  no  more  servants,  but 
I  have  called  you  friends." 

As  against  this  power  of  communicating  the 
Spiritual  Life  when  the  Spiritual  Life  is  low, 
all  declarations  of  nearness  to  the  heavenly 
throne  are  as  those  of  one  who  doth  protest 
too  much.  They  finally  echo  something  of 
servility,  and,  at  length,  much  more  of  venal- 
ity.    Every  assumption  of  intimacy  with  the 


306  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

eternal  betrays  the  rags  of  time.  Every  dis- 
play of  new-found  skill,  in  the  presence  of  the 
all-True,  only  unwinds  the  skein  of  the  false. 

Does  it  go  without  needing  to  be  said 
again  and  again — that  no  man  will  have 
power  in  public  prayer  who  has  not  won 
power  in  private  devotion  ?  The  pathway  to 
God  is  precisely  the  pathway  which  the  Christ 
of  God  has  taken  to  us.  It  is  the  pathway  by 
which  He  enters  into  the  life  of  the  minister. 
If  it  is  not  trodden  constantly,  lovingly,  and 
adoringly  back  to  God,  by  feet  which  bear  up 
the  body  of  a  valorous  soldier  for  goodness, 
it  will  become  a  tangle  and  even  a  snare. 

The  greatest  truth  is  exacdy  the  truth  which, 
if  unused,  is  like  the  greatest  opportunity  af- 
forded the  Spiritual  Life,  and  is  the  most 
fraught  with  peril.  Is  there  anything  more 
direful,  in  its  sadness,  than  the  moment  in 
public  prayer,  in  which  human  beings  are 
most  desirous  of  leadership  unto  God,  when 
the  minister  has  either  not  found  the  way  of 
progress  Godward,  to  begin  with  ;  or  having 
once  set  out  upon  it,  perhaps  with  the  aid  of 
a  luminous  Scripture  text,  he  has  lost  his  way 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     307 

and  the  significance  of  the  text  as  well  ?  To 
keep  going  on  with  phrase  after  phrase,  in 
the  presence  of  the  omnipotent  love,  and 
with  the  trembling  interests  of  human  hearts 
and  lives  clinging  to  our  wandering  verbiage, 
is  a  far  more  disastrous  thing  to  whatever  of 
sincerity  there  may  yet  be  in  us,  than  even  the 
same  sort  of  manipulating  for  time,  in  order 
that  we  may  haply  come  within  sight  of  ideas 
and  inspirations,  when  we  have  unhappily 
come  upon  similar  moments  in  preaching. 
If  it  is  a  serious  and  just  charge  against 
some  preaching  that  it  defeats  its  end,  in 
robbing  the  minister  of  self-respect  and  in 
making  the  audience  faithless  as  to  him  and 
perhaps  his  message,  because  he  speaks  of 
experiences,  deep  and  tragic,  which  involve 
the  secret  domains  of  life  to  which  his  con- 
sciousness is  a  total  stranger,  how  much  more 
overwhelming  is  the  weight  of  the  charge 
against  one  who,  in  prayer,  in  the  very  face 
of  Jehovah,  prattles  unctuously — for  it  is 
nothing  more  or  less — of  religious  experi- 
ences in  repentance,  self-reproach,  self-sacri- 
fice, and  moral  confidence  which  have  never 


308  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

happened  in  the  hfe  of  the  man  then  praying. 
The  whole  atmosphere  of  such  a  man  gives 
the  He  to  his  profanity.  But,  on  the  con- 
trary, when  one's  total  self  has  been  rescued 
from  the  invasion  and  ruin  of  sin,  when  the 
shadow  of  one's  past  sin  haunts  the  present 
morning  with  its  horror  and  yet  dares  not  to 
venture  in  upon  one's  precious  daytime,  how 
certainly  and  with  what  buoyancy  and  charm 
of  personal  faithfulness  his  prayer  to  God  for 
others  institutes  within  them,  by  blessed  con- 
tagion, a  life  of  faith.  The  crises  in  our  own 
lives, — they  alone  will  give  us  an  eye  man- 
ward  for  seeing  the  crises  in  the  lives  of 
others ;  and  the  fact  that  we  have  looked 
Godward  when  crises  have  occurred  in  our 
lives  will  give  us  an  eye  Godward,  discerning 
the  coming  from  afar  of  the  God  who  answers 
prayer.  We  build  our  smoke-stack  very 
high,  in  order  that  the  furnace  may  have  the 
best  draft ;  and  the  Spiritual  Life  must  be  very 
lofty,  if  the  breath  of  prayer  going  upward 
shall  serve  to  intensify  the  heat  which  life 
needs  for  all  its  purposes. 

The  best  prayer,  of  course,  for  us  to  study, 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     309 

in  order  that  we  may  have  the  right 
point  of  view,  and  be  assured  of  that  prog- 
ress of  ideas  and  hopes  of  a  spirit  which 
receives  power  from  God,  as  well  as  that 
preparation  of  the  soul  for  all  the  expe- 
riences of  divine  education,  is  the  prayer  of 
our  Lord.  Never  let  your  prayer  be  a  run- 
ning comment  on  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Let  its 
spirit,  and  the  development  of  the  vision  of 
Jesus  within  its  petitions,  be  all  yours.  Once 
enshrined  in  your  Spiritual  Life,  its  glow  and 
expanding  truth  will  make  impossible  any 
temporary  accommodations  of  its  appeal  to 
God,  in  behalf  of  the  petty  occasionalism  of 
our  life.  Place  yourself  unreservedly  in  lov- 
ing discipleship,  under  the  leadership  of  Him 
who  will  lead  you  constantly  to  the  moun- 
tain of  His  own  transfiguration.  There 
again  Jesus  teaches  us  what  must  oc- 
cur in  every  true  prayer.  His  prayer 
brings  him  into  communion  with  great  souls. 
Every  church  service,  through  hymn  and 
anthem,  praise,  and  preaching,  and  prayer, 
ought  to  be  a  transfiguration  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.     His  life  was  the  greatest  of  prayers  to 


3IO  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

God.  His  life  in  our  church  service  will  make 
all  its  moments  moments  of  prayer,  and  we 
will  be  in  the  neighbourhood  of  great  souls 
of  all  ages — souls  like  Moses  and  Elias  who 
appeared  in  the  glory  of  Christ — He  does  not 
appear  in  the  glory  of  them.  Finally,  they 
depart  and  we  see  Jesus  only.  It  has  been  a 
great  Christian  service. 

The  natural  foundation  of  religion  has 
been  in  sight  of  science  and  philosophy  for 
some  time.  Rather  unwillingly  has  the 
Church  at  last  found  that  the  true  position  of 
religion  in  its  influence  in  the  world  depends 
upon  our  acknowledging  this  natural  basis  in 
the  nature  and  potencies  of  the  human  soul. 
Such  men  as  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  David  Ram- 
sey, and  Dr.  Hyslop  represent  the  fields  of 
medical  science,  psychology,  and  philosophy, 
which  were  mapped  out  roughly  by  the  genius 
of  Clerk  Maxwell,  and  the  lips  of  the  most 
unassailable  learning  and  culture  now  move 
with  the  invitation  and  exhortation — "  Let 
us  pray."  So  long  as  it  was  doubtful  if 
man  has  a  soul,  or  is  a  soul  living  in  a  body, 
it  was  perhaps  unscientific  to  sing, — "  Prayer 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     3II 

is  the  soul's  sincere  desire,  uttered  or  unex- 
pressed," and  "  the  motion  of  the  heavenly- 
fire  that  trembles  in  the  breast."  But  now 
we  see  that  it  would  be  nearly  impossible  to 
state  the  facts  and  forces  of  human  nature 
more  accurately  than  in  these  old  and  famil- 
iar words.  Christian  prayer  will  always  have 
its  own  ample  sky  and  its  awful  deeps  within. 
Deep  will  continue  to  call  unto  deep  ;  sanc- 
tity and  strength  will  continue  to  meet  in  the 
issues  and  experiences  of  prayer. 

The  Christian  minister  leading  a  congrega- 
tion in  prayer  is  certainly  an  unique  object  for 
earth  and  heaven,  because  of  the  grandeur  of 
his  aims  and  the  unconscious  nobility  of  his  un- 
dertaking. If  one  should  stop  to  think  of  the 
multitude  of  capacities  that  are  to  be  voiced, 
of  the  throng  of  unheard-of  possibilities  which 
are  to  be  discovered  and  uncovered,  of  the 
numberless  tracts  of  being  within  any  con- 
gregation which  is  to  be  sensitized  and  divin- 
ized, in  a  prayer  that  may  utter  any  part  of  the 
spiritual  yearning  found  there,  one  would  be 
stricken  with  silence.  But  the  minister  must 
think  not  of  these,  enchanting  and  expansive 


312  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

as  his  thinking  comes  to  be  on  such  a  theme. 
He  must  think  of  the  God  he  himself  has  seen 
upon  the  Great  White  Throne,  above  all  this 
territory,  and  he  must  know  in  his  own  other- 
wise poor  life  that  each  of  these  needy  sections 
of  immortal  being  has  its  undoubtable  reason 
for  being,  and  that  its  home  is  in  God.  The 
minister  must  be  surcharged  with  the  con- 
viction, illuminated  and  quickened  in  the  ex- 
perience of  his  own  prayerful  life,  that  "  only 
the  infinite  pity  is  equal  to  the  infinite  pathos 
of  human  life,"  as  the  author  of  "John  Ingle- 
sant"  has  told  us,  and  that  any  cry  to  the 
All-Pitiful  cannot  fail. 

An  absorbing  sense  of  the  unity  of  the  uni- 
verse under  God  ;  a  persuasion  that  man  is  at 
his  highest  in  prayer  ;  that  man  who  is  highest 
cannot  fail  at  his  highest,  and  that,  therefore, 
prayer  is  the  normal  exchange  of  values  be- 
tween the  child  and  the  Father,  the  soul  and  its 
God — this  fine  conclusion  must  consecrate  and 
enshrine  all  his  prayer.  It  is  a  fact  to  be  la- 
mented that  our  prayers  are  so  little  Chris- 
tian. That  is,  that  they  have  so  little  of  the 
spirit  of  soul-sacrifice  in  them.     We  underes- 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     313 

timate,  as  we  pray,  what  has  been  spoken  of 
as  the  value  of  the  passive  virtues.  Even  the 
best  of  us  is  likely  to  sing,  like  the  Abt  Vog- 
ler  of  Robert  Browning,  only  so  far  as  the 
words  go  : 

"  Well,  it  is  earth  with  me;  silence  resumes  her 
reign  : 
I  will  be  patient  and  proud,  and  soberly  ac- 
quiesce, ' ' 

as  if  to  "acquiesce"  with  God  is  something 
less  than  a  very  great  and  ennobling  act. 

I  have  questioned,  if  there  is,  especially  in 
modern  literature,  a  less  consciously  wrought 
or  a  more  sincerely  achieved  presentation  of 
true  praying  than  this.  This  man  is  like 
many  a  man  in  your  congregation  ;  and  for 
him  you  would  pray.  Why  ?  He  has  failed 
with  the  sublimities  all  around  him.  This  is 
the  tragedy  of  most  men's  failures.  He  is  one 
of  those  men  whose  purpose  in  life  is  beyond 
their  performance.  They  have  had  aspira- 
tions beyond  achievements;  but  the  man's 
struggle  is  distinctly  Christian.  The  inner 
minstrelsy  of  his  nature  has  been  turned  loose 
by  a  vision  of  God  ;  and  the  righteous  mind 


314  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

feels  that  his  circumstances  must  not  turn 
in  and  engulf  him.  You  think  of  him,  in 
your  prayer,  also.  Your  poor  fellow,  bowed 
with  his  failure,  has  no  such  eloquence  of 
verse  as  Abt  Vogler  with  Browning ;  but 
he  has  an  experience,  as  a  Christian,  which 
leads  him  to  believe  that  which  is,  at  root, 
this, — that  the  Cross  of  Calvary  has  turned 
out  to  be  the  throne  of  Christ.  Why  should 
he,  who  has  a  Browning  for  poetizing  him, 
seek  in  vain  for  you  to  voice  him  in  prayer  ? 
All  these  things  which  are  crosses  "  are 
music  sent  up  to  God  by  the  lover  and  the 
bard  "  ;  and  we  believe  that  it  is  "  enough 
that  He  heard  it  once,"  and  "  we  shall  hear  it 
by  and  by."  There  is  no  theological  lan- 
guage here,  I  admit,  but  we  know  that  this 
is  the  true  psychology  of  prayer. 

Every  minister  knows  when  a  man  in 
circumstances  similar  to  his  own,  however 
limited  may  be  his  intellectual  range,  is  in 
search  of  the  keys,  as  was  Abt  Vogler.  The 
greatest  answer  to  his  greatest  prayer  is  the 
gift  of  the  keys.  Later  on,  he  will  find  the 
"  C  major  "  of  this  life  ;  but  all  he  asks  of 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     315 

God  is  the  expression  of  his  powers  through 
adequate  instrumentalities ;  then  he  is  one  of 
those  who  say,  "  We  are  workers  together 
with  God."  We  must  never  miss  our  privi- 
lege of  serving  such  a  man,  and  his  God,  in 
our  prayer  for  him,  which  must  be  our  prayer 
with  him. 

Jesus  Himself  had  the  divine  power  of  ac- 
quiescing humanly  in  God's  program  ;  He 
could  do  His  Father's  will  so  willingly  as  to 
expand  His  personality  with  the  inner  pres- 
ence of  God,  and  say — "  I  and  the  Father 
are  One."  By  the  misapprehension  of  a  low 
Spiritual  Life  and  its  feebleness  fundamentally, 
we  underestimate  the  precious  gift  of  suffering 
and  the  increase  of  power  which  comes  by 
bearing,  rather  than  doing.  The  prayers  of 
a  Christian  minister  ought  never  to  be  frantic 
or  indolent  announcements  to  God  of  our 
efforts  to  escape  the  heroic  in  human  life. 
An  age,  like  ours,  which  is  so  set  upon 
doing  and  having,  rather  than  being,  will 
offer  no  high  place  for  one  who  is  the  min- 
ister to  a  mind  diseased  in  this  way.  Let  us 
be  superior  to  our  age,  and  each  make  his 


3l6  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

own  place.  Pulpit  power  is  of  all  things  the 
most  destructive  of  manly  tissue  and  womanly 
patience,  when  it  confesses  the  unsatisfactori- 
ness  of  life's  content  as  to  the  balance  of 
energies,  good  and  bad,  and  runs  even  to 
heaven  and  the  throne  of  God  as  a  last  re- 
sort. Power  in  the  pulpit  must  unfold  and 
set  forth,  not  in  the  form  of  a  catalogue,  but 
by  a  flash  of  the  interior  flame,  kindled 
from  above,  the  riches  of  the  human  soul 
and  its  resources  in  the  God  to  Whom  we 
pray. 

Many  a  man  has  been  led  by  the  prayers 
of  Thomas  Guthrie  or  George  Dawson  of 
Birmingham,  for  examples,  to  find  that  he 
had  no  business,  because  it  was  not  worthy  of 
a  man,  to  ask  God  for  something  whose  tat- 
tered phrase  was  about  to  be  spoken  by  his 
own  lips.  Then  and  there,  he  felt  he  had 
something  more  valuable  in  the  new  light 
which  made  the  whole  congregation  richer 
by  similar  self-discovery.  The  tremendous 
spiritual  resource  of  Baldwin  Brown  always 
seemed  to  me  to  disclose  itself  in  his  prayer. 
He  was  the  most  willing  of  all  souls  to  get 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     317 

on  with  what  God  had  appointed  for  him. 
Apparently-j  he  had  no  doubt  whatever  of  the 
vaHdity  and  wisdom  of  the  divine  program ; 
and  this  was  basic  in  his  prayer  for  the  peo- 
ple. He  seemed  to  be  reverendy,  obediendy, 
yet  aspiringly  looking  that  program  over 
and  investigating  joyfully  the  beneficences  of 
God's  plan  for  every  one  of  them.  One 
could  learn  much  from  Hugh  Price  Hughes, 
also,  who  could  lift  a  congregation  so  com- 
pletely into  the  light  of  God  that  men  were 
constantly  saying  to  their  own  hearts,  "  Well, 
we  can  get  along  without  this  and  that,  if  we 
can  only  live  in  this  light,  where  we  see  things 
as  they  really  are  "  ;  and  his  nature  enforced  its 
rapid  and  revealing  quality  upon  his  praying, 
so  that,  in  its  brevity,  his  prayer  conveyed  a 
teaching  which  was  more  powerful  than  that 
of  his  sermon,  fine  and  uplifting  as  it  was 
ordinarily. 

Joseph  Parker  greatly  inspired  and  con- 
tinually exalted  the  Spiritual  Life  of  his  peo- 
ple by  prayers  falsely  called  extempore, 
for  they  were  the  blossoms  of  his  own  ad- 
vancing Spiritual  Life — prayers  which  were 


3l8  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

eminently  Christian  from  another  point  of 
view.  He  had  a  power  unsurpassed,  so 
far  as  I  know,  springing  from  a  sympathy 
which  felt  so  much  farther  than  his  intellect 
could  see — a  power  of  discovering  the  soul  of 
his  friend  to  himself  and  compelling  him  to 
seek,  beyond  his  own  meagre  method  of  treat- 
ment, for  the  difficulty  pressing  upon  him, 
for  God's  idea  and  method.  Two  years  of 
acquaintance  with  his  work,  as  one  may  see  it 
from  all  points,  and  in  a  manner  which  could 
not  possibly  have  brought  him  to  me  in  a  less 
self-revealing  mood  than  that  of  the  man  of 
spiritual  power,  above  all  else,  have  given  the 
thirty  years  of  my  ministry  a  recollection  of 
what  it  is  and  ever  must  be  to  pray,  as  the 
minister  who  deeply  loves  men  must  ever 
pray  with  them  and  for  them.  This  is  per- 
haps not  altogether  a  gift,  though  it  seemed 
one  of  the  many  and  the  choicest  in  this  man's 
treasure-house  of  powers.  The  truth  is,  he 
was  leading  his  people,  just  in  the  way  and 
by  the  same  motives  as  Christ  was  leading 
him,  all  the  while  in  prayer.  The  whole  life 
of  Jesus  was  the  expression  of  His  prayerful 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     319 

nature.  The  tendrils  of  His  spirit  were  run- 
ning Father-ward ;  and  even  His  vocabulary, 
like  the  leaves,  was  seasonal  as  nature's 
growth,  and  always  it  was  heavy  with  dews 
and  rain  from  above.  As  Jesus  carries  the 
soul  of  His  servant  who  is  "with  Christ,  in 
God,"  on  and  on,  into  the  heart  of  the  infinite 
Fatherhood,  so  the  trustful  and  Christ-born 
man  in  the  ministry  has  Christ's  own  experi- 
ence. Beginning  to  pray  that  he  may  be  de- 
livered from  drinking  the  cup ;  then,  his 
sincere  and  open  soul,  so  pliable  and  recep- 
tive to  God's  purpose,  appealing  in  what  was 
Christ's  and  is  his  life's  one  long  prayer  by 
saying,  "  Not  mine,  but  Thy  will  be  done." 
This  is  indeed  ministerial  praying. 

It  is  the  High  Priest's  most  glorious  func- 
tion truly  exercised.  Let  us  not  be  afraid  to 
be  priesdy  in  this  way.  He  who  is  Christ's 
follower  here  has  carried  into  the  Holy  of 
Holies  something  more  than  the  ancient 
High  Priest  could  know.  He  has  carried 
into  the  Holy  of  Holies  what  our  High  Priest, 
the  Christ,  takes  from  his  weak  hands ;  and 
Jesus  presents  it  to  His  Father — the  dearest 


320  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

thing  this  side  of  the  divine  Fatherhood — the 
human  soul. 

Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  that  these  re- 
actions upon  our  abihty  to  heroically  live 
our  lives,  which  affect  us  less,  because  we  get 
what  we  ask  for  in  prayer,  than  because  we 
become  able  to  do  without  what  would  be 
mere  props  to  an  ability  to  stand  alone  in 
God's  name,  are  all  or  even  the  larger  por- 
tion of  the  effect  of  praying.  We  have 
desires  that  must  be  answered  by  something 
not  less  than  a  loftier  quality  acquired  to  do 
without  them,  even  while  we  pray.  We 
have  wants  which  are  indubitable,  demands 
which  do  not  fade  away,  because  our  wishes, 
which  we  even  mistake  for  wants,  are  lost 
sight  of  as  we  pray.  We  see  the  shell  and 
husk  which  are  cast  aside,  but  we  must  not 
underestimate  the  same  circulation  between 
the  lower  and  the  higher — the  life-current 
between  the  plant  and  the  sun — which  goes  on 
in  nature.  If  a  minister's  own  Spiritual  Life 
is  the  gratification  of  a  series  of  wishes  only, 
his  power  will  never  disclose  a  vital  point ; 
and  it  is  quite  as  much  the  mission  of  prayer 


AND    ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     321 

to  deepen  and  describe  to  one's  own  con- 
sciousness a  genuine  spiritual  want,  as  it  is 
to  plead  for  its  satisfaction.  Men  never 
know  how  deep  the  sky  is  above  them  until 
they  have  revealed  to  them  the  depth  of  an 
inverted  sky  beneath,  on  which  they  have 
set  sail.  Let  no  prayer  be  supposed  valid 
for  human  nature  which  echoes  the  shallows, 
while  indeed  the  deeps  are  dumb.  To 
change  the  figure,  let  no  public  prayer  be 
considered  less  than  an  influence  hostile  to 
man's  greatest  self-attainment  and  joy,  which 
does  not  sink  the  shaft  into  the  mother-vein 
of  all  his  hard  and  hidden  ore,  and  also  find 
the  dens  of  wild  beasts  which  must  be  ex- 
terminated, while,  in  the  wilderness,  he  works 
that  vein.  The  desirable  mind  of  prayer, 
here  suggested  by  contrast,  will  never  come, 
except  as  the  expression  God-ward  of  a  per- 
sonal life  which  identifies  the  hopes  and 
aspirations,  and  loves,  and  griefs,  and  re- 
morses of  others  with  one's  own,  at  the 
deepest  level  of  his  problem  of  life,  and 
gives  them  voice. 

If  we  agree  that  the  minister  is  the  minstrel 


322  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

of  the  soul,  through  his  preaching  and  per- 
sonal exercise  of  brotherliness  to  all  hu- 
manity, revealing  its  stringed  and  vibratory 
harmonies  under  his  strong  and  sure  touch, 
much  more  is  he,  in  prayer,  the  soul's  friend 
who  liberates  unheard-of  melodies  which  we 
know  are  sweeter  than  those  which  are  heard. 
Who  am  I,  at  the  moment  as  a  true  minister 
of  God  to  any  soul  which  takes  me  into  com- 
panionship with  him  to  pray,  save  his  in- 
terpreter to  Almighty  Love  ? 

I  have  spoken  of  the  influence  of  the 
higher  Spiritual  Life  upon  the  doctrines  of 
our  religion  which  are  highest.  All  of  these 
doctrines  will  appear  and  reappear  in  the 
prayer  of  the  ministry,  and  if  it  is  true  that 
the  minister  is  the  true  minstrel  of  the 
soul,  we  may  see  why  it  is  also  true  that 
minstrelsy  in  the  church  and  prayer  is 
always  evangelic,  positive,  and  resonant 
with  the  doctrines  of  grace.  It  is  almost  as 
hard  to  pray  real  heresy  as  it  is  to  sing  it. 
It  is  quite  as  impossible  to  sing  agnosticism, 
and,  most  of  all,  is  it  impossible  to  sing 
atheism,  and  for  the  same  reasons.     There 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN    323 

is  no  alliance  between  them  and  prayer ;  a 
godless  world  has  no  prayer ;  a  world  with 
its  supreme  power  unknown  and  unknow- 
able, even  to  the  experience  of  faith,  has  no 
altars  and  no  choir  and  chorus  to  originate, 
stimulate  and  enrich  prayer. 

So,  beginning  with  the  doctrine  of  God, 
which  is  to  be  maintained  only  by  a  life 
in  and  with  God,  we  find  our  minister 
always  Christlike  in  his  vision  of  those  with 
whom  he  prays,  for  whom  he  prays  ;  seeing 
men  and  their  destiny  involved  always  in 
the  purpose  and  movement  and  self-revela- 
tion of  God. 

The  reaction  of  the  prayerful  life  upon  all 
the  doctrines  to  which  one  is  attached,  be- 
cause their  truthfulness  has  made  him  true, 
is  incalculable.  The  Being  to  whom  one  is 
willing  to  pray,  with  the  lives  and  destinies 
of  others  upon  his  heart,  must  be  no  less 
than  the  living  God,  for  the  preacher's 
theology.  The  Being  who  stands  behind 
and  shines  through  his  appeal  must  be  God 
Himself,  as  He  was  and  is  the  Being  of  beings 
within  the  minister's  mind.  His  presence  dis- 


324  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

covering  the  godlike  in  the  ruins  of  human 
nature  with  which  the  minister  delights  to 
work.  It  is  a  loss  irremediable,  when  there 
occurs  in  the  minister's  mind,  as  he  dis- 
courses, a  theistic  dualism — the  man  preach- 
ing to  the  people — as  a  soul  having  a  God 
different  from  the  God  of  the  man  praying 
for  the  people.  It  is  not  the  old  dualism  be- 
tween Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  which  is  too 
crass  to  harm  much,  but  it  is  a  partially 
realized  di-Theism  which  is  worse  than  any 
tri-Theism.  Then,  fortunately,  the  heart  of 
the  people  often  shows  how  much  more  holy 
and  yet  tender,  how  much  more  sublime  and 
yet  near,  is  the  God  of  our  minister's  prayers 
than  the  God  of  his  sermons.  If  there  must  be 
a  difference  in  your  vagrant  deliberations,  en- 
shrine your  best  vision,  as  you  probably  must, 
in  prayer,  and  speak  forth  its  beauty  there. 
Prayer  will  compel  stricter  honesties  and 
deeper  reverences  than  sermon-making,  even 
than  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  Prayittg 
the  Gospel  depends  primarily  upon  the 
realization  of  the  life  of  God  in  your 
humanity,  according  to  the  law  and  method, 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN    325 

and  through  incarnation.     Let  nothing  lead 
you    to    forget   that  a   Christian   prayer   is 
Christ's  life,  first  revealed  in  you  and  then 
revealed  by  you ;  and  no  man  goeth  up  into 
heaven  but  he  that  came  down  out  of  heaven. 
Prayer  is  a  manifestation  of  God  from  above, 
first,  in  the  soul— the  vision  of  God,  one's 
experience  with  God,  revealing  the  nature  of 
God  in  humanity.     Therefore,  when  prayer 
is  true,  this  revealment  of  God  which  it  is 
goes  back  to  heaven,  and  in  obedience  to 
gravitations  which  pull  from  above,  like  the 
Christ  of  God.     The  soul  of  man  realizes,  in 
its  life,  that  true  prayer  has  its  beginning 
and  end  in  God.     Let  our  doctrine  of  God 
know  the  reactions  of  our  praying  unto  God, 
and  all  will  be  well. 

I  might  go  on  to  speak  at  length,  in  this 
same  way,  about  the  doctrine  of  atonement 
and  the  relation  of  our  view  of  the  Scriptures 
to  prayer.  This  much  must  be  said  concern- 
ing one's  doctrine  of  the  atonement — that  its 
genuineness,  livableness,  and  self-evidencing 
practicalness,  will  give  such  colour  to  one's 
prayers,    when    one    has    his    congregation 


326  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

living  or  dying  in  one's  own  heart,  that  noth- 
ing but  what  our  Spiritual  Life  validates  in 
this  respect  can  be  seriously  entertained  in 
the  mind. 

In  our  current  view  of  the  atonement  in 
Christ  as  the  staple  of  Gospel  preaching,  and 
the  spiritual  encouragement  it  gives  in  our 
praying,  it  is  not  so  much  that  the  Bible  tells 
us  this  is  true,  though  that  means  something, 
as  it  is  that  human  nature  under  divine  in- 
fluence should  speak  as  it  does.  It  is  not 
so  much  that  constituted  authorities,  assem- 
blies, and  conventions  say  so ;  it  is  not  so 
much  because  professors  of  Christian  dogmat- 
ics have  concluded  that  the  completeness 
of  the  theological  system  requires  something 
more  than  has  been  insisted  upon,  as  it  is 
that  the  soul  of  humanity  at  its  truest  mo- 
ments seizes,  for  its  way  of  approach  to  God, 
upon  a  path  which  our  theology  has  not 
duly  emphasized,  that  makes  it  true  in  us 
and  for  us.  Man's  prayer,  as  the  utterance 
of  his  broken  heart  in  the  midst  of  the  severe 
crises  of  his  Hfe,  has  enlarged,  while  it  has 
conserved,   his    theology.     At  least,   it  has 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     327 

vivified  an  old  truth  of  the  atonement.  So 
much  it  has  done,  and  will  do,  with  all  the 
doctrines  of  faith. 

The  Spiritual  Life  born  anew  out  of  sorrow, 
trained  by  the  culture  of  the  Cross  of  Jesus, 
is  never  so  evangelical,  nor  does  it  ever  so 
richly  present  the  truths  which  are  to  con- 
stitute the  rising  orthodoxy,  than  when  it  ex- 
periences new  Truth,  or  a  Truth  that  is  new 
to  its  own  consciousness.  Indeed,  usually 
that  which  is  often  called  "  new  truth "  is 
only  a  revivification  of  old  truth — old  truth, 
which  has  been  neglected  and  has  partially 
perished,  as  yonder  tree,  planted  in  time  of 
the  stream's  fullness  and  then  had  its  roots 
touched  by  the  river,  now  dies  in  the  time 
when  the  river-bed  is  dry.  There  were  re- 
quired the  new  impulses  of  a  Spiritual  Life 
developed  in  new  crises  to  re-present  the  for- 
gotten truth. 

The  most  impressive  illustration  of  this, 
which  I  remember,  is  a  double  one.  It 
comes  from  the  Christian  experience  of  two 
of  my  friends.  The  one,  Dr.  George  Mathe- 
son,  author  of  the  hymn,  "  O  Love  That  Will 


328  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

Not  Let  Me  Go,"  the  other,  Dr.  William  R. 
Harper,  educator  and  leader  of  men  here,  the 
spiritual  and  intellectual  founder  and  guide 
of  the  University  of  Chicago.  The  story  of 
Matheson's  blindness  and  the  origin  of  this 
precious  hymn  are  known  everywhere.  It  is 
not  usually  known,  however,  that  this,  like 
every  such  spiritual  achievement,  came  from 
the  necessity  of  his  soul's  unfolding  for  a 
vision  of  God  and  His  ways  which  would 
answer  to  the  difficulty  and  pain  which 
had  then  come  to  him.  Such  an  experience, 
as  sincerely  accepted  as  it  is  looked  into, 
must  lead  any  mind  beyond  the  ordinary 
statement  of  the  truth  of  atonement  by  the 
Cross  and  at  the  Cross  of  Jesus.  A  life  with- 
out a  cross  of  its  own  will  never  sing : 

"  O  cross  that  liftest  up  my  head, 
I  dare  not  ask  to  fly  from  thee." 

A  life  honestly  dealing  with  a  personal  cross, 
such  as  this,  must  sing  this  truth  in  its  prayer, 
above  all  others.  A  man  who  has  not  found 
out  instantly,  on  revering  his  own  personal 
cross,  that  to  fly  from  it  means  to  fly  from  his 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN    329 

truer  life,  inasmuch  as  it  has  the  secret  of  power 
of  his  truer  Hfe  within  it,  has  never  called  upon 
the  resources  of  the  Spiritual  Life  in  the  way- 
George  Matheson  called  upon  them  as  he 
prayed.  Only  our  own  crosses  will  enable 
us  to  understand  what  Jesus  meant  when  He 
said  :  "  Take  up  thy  cross  and  follow  Me," 
and  what  the  apostle  meant  when  he  said: 
"  Whereof  I  Paul  am  made  a  minister  ;  who 
now  rejoice  in  my  sufTerings  for  you,  and  fill 
up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions  of 
Christ  in  my  flesh  for  His  body's  sake,  which 
is  the  Church."  The  Cross  of  Christ  is 
unique,  of  course.  It  is  unique  as  Jesus  is, 
because  He  is  our  representative  humanity. 
The  Cross  of  Jesus  makes  sacred  our  crosses. 
It  lends  to  them  the  secret  of  its  power.  We 
behold  what  the  Cross  of  Jesus  did  for  Jesus 
in  its  enthroning  Him,  through  making  the 
"  captain  of  our  salvation  perfect  through 
sufferings."  So,  we  come  into  the  right  valu- 
ation of  our  own  Calvary  and  our  sufferings 
there. 

When    Dr.    Harper    was   passing   hence, 
through  long  and  agonizing  months,  it  was 


330  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

mine  to  bring  to  him  often  this  truth  so 
freshly  restated  by  the  Scotch  scholar  and 
mystic.  Let  no  one  dream,  for  a  moment, 
that  Dr.  Harper's  most  radical  views  of  the 
nature  of  the  Bible  and  the  true  method  of  its 
interpretation  underwent  any  change.  It  was 
distinctly  through  his  larger  faith  in  God's 
natural  method  of  working  through  the 
Spiritual  Life  of  the  humanity  of  the  olden 
time  and  of  all  time,  that  he  grasped  this, 
which  we  may  well  call  the  most  sadly  neg- 
lected truth  of  all-atoning  grace.  His  deeper 
and  larger  Spiritual  Life  simply  expelled  from 
itself  all  dry  formularies,  and,  in  this  personal 
experience  through  his  own  cross,  with  all  the 
frustration  of  his  brilliant  hopes  and  all  the 
crushing  disappointments  of  his  heart  regard- 
ing his  work  on  earth,  God  and  His  word 
came  to  the  rescue  through  the  completion 
of  a  faith  such  as,  in  any  of  us,  is  never  satis- 
fied, in  the  face  of  such  calamities,  unfulfilled 
with  this  vision.  I  never  believed  more  in 
the  grandeur  of  those  determinations  which 
the  Spiritual  Life  alone  must  make,  as  to  the 
largeness  and  depth  of  any  living  orthodoxy 


AND   ITS   COMMUNICATION   TO   MEN     33 1 

than  when,  with  the  towers  of  the  University- 
unfinished  and  his  glorious  prime  and  ma- 
turity apparently  quenched  out  from  earth's 
vision  and  influence,  his  lips  moved  with  joy, 
and  his  heart  repeated  with  my  own  George 
Matheson's  words  : 


"  O  cross  that  liftest  up  my  head, 
I  do  not  ask  to  fly  from  thee ; 
I  lay  in  dust,  life's  glory  dead. 
And  from  the  ground  there  blossoms 
red. 
Life  that  shall  endless  be." 


LECTURE  VIII 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND 
THE    MINISTERS   POWER 


LECTURE  VIII 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  AND  THE 
MINISTER'S  POWER 

AFTER  all,  the  quality  and  force  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  which  is  ours  will  be 
rightly  judged  and  known,  here  and 
elsewhere,  by  the  kind  of  humanity  we  help 
to  upbuild.  The  one  result  which  is  worth 
while — such  is  the  determination  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  of  the  Christian  minister — is  | 
Christlike  manhood.  Not  the  multitude  of 
pastoral  calls,  not  a  vast  congregation  or  a 
long  roll  of  church-members,  not  even  the 
greatest  sermon  is  of  such  importance,  or 
worth,  as  is  the  tiniest  increment  of  personal 
sanctity.  And  as  for  the  great  sermon— it  is 
never  even  a  great  sermon  unless  its  aim  is 
to  produce  manhood  ;  and  it  hits  the  mark 
only  in  exalted  human  character.  So  our 
preaching  and  pastoral  service  for  men  must, 
first,  have  Christ's  fine  regard  for  whatever 
power  for  self-help  there  may  be  yet  in  any 
335 


336  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

man — a  potency  from  which  no  man  ought 
to  be  separated.  When  the  Teutonic  was  on 
that  memorable  voyage  whose  March  storm 
nearly  sent  her  to  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic, 
her  man  at  the  watch  descried  in  the  fog  a 
hapless  schooner  off  the  Grand  Banks.  It 
appeared  that  nothing  was  left  of  her  rigging ; 
and  she  plunged  aimlessly  about  with  the 
violence  of  the  tempest.  Soon  a  signal  of 
distress  was  visible,  and  two  sailors  were  seen 
hanging  to  her  broken  hatchway.  The  great 
Teutonic \hQXi  reminded  one  of  a  magnificently 
endowed  Christian,  ardent  for  that  triumph 
of  the  ministry  which  begins  in  self-forget- 
fulness,  generous  love,  and  ends  in  rescue. 

How  splendid  it  is,  and  yet,  often  and  here, 
how  inefificient !  As  the  Teutonic  got  near, 
lifted  above  the  craft  tossed  by  the  mighty 
and  swift  seas,  her  very  power  and  greatness 
were  against  her  enterprise  of  saving.  She 
could  not  approach  closely  enough  to  save 
without  smiting  and  engulfing  the  bark 
and  the  wretched  men  still  aboard  of  her. 
Her  life-boats  were  lowered,  after  being 
superbly  manned ;   and   almost  as  speedily 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         337 

they  were  dashed  back  against  the  ship  from 
which  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  get  away. 
Then  it  was  that  the  captain  saw  the  httle  dory 
still  fast  to  the  ship  which  was  now  rapidly 
breaking  up.  The  dizzied  and  drenched 
sailors  had  forgotten  all  about  that  little  dory. 
The  Teutonics  captain  surrendered  his  first 
plans  and  his  engaging  method  of  their  sal- 
vation. He  shouted  through  mist  and  blast 
to  them  :  "  Take  to  the  dory  and  come  to  us." 
It  is  an  affair  of  personal  character,  per- 
haps the  finest  deposit,  but  certainly  the 
result  of  a  certain  most  genuine  Spiritual  Life 
intent  upon  the  one  thing — the  affair  of 
saving — which  behaves  thus  wisely  and  well. 
Not  a  sermonic  result,  but  the  human  result, — 
his  heart  and  eye  on  that — enables  a  man,  in 
such  a  moment,  to  throw  every  cherished  plan 
or  ambition  to  the  winds  which  howl  about 
him,  and  adopt  freely  and  joyously  the  one 
unanticipated,  but  now  evident,  method  of 
saving  his  brothers.  The  larger  the  Teutonic, 
the  more  certain  it  is  that  the  men  on  the 
bark  must  take  to  the  dory  and  come  to 
the  greater  boat.     Not  to  press  this  illustra- 


338  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

tion  too  far,  we  must  recognize  in  the  life  of 
the  minister,  devoted  to  the  salvation  of  men, 
that  there  is  nothing  more  wise,  tender,  and 
distinctly  loyal  to  the  higher  values  of  human 
personality,  which  we  would  help  in  every 
crisis  like  this,  than  the  evoking,  by  admoni- 
tion or  command,  of  every  atom  of  power 
and  opportunity  or  self-help  which  our  most 
loved  but  apparently  helpless  brother  pos- 
sesses. "Take  to  the  dory  and  come  to  us" 
— this  is  the  call. 

The  greatest  preachers  of  divine  grace  I 
have  ever  known  have  been  the  preachers 
also  of  what  we  call  "  works."  We  are 
"saved  by  faith  alone,  but  the  faith  is  not 
alone."  The  power  to  stimulate  the  con- 
fidence which  sends  the  current  of  newly  ac- 
quired vitality,  caught  from  our  own,  along 
the  nerveless  sinews  and  through  the  very 
bones  of  a  man  who  needs  to  be  rescued,  so 
that  he  instantly  does  all  he  can  for  himself 
and  develops,  in  his  being  saved,  a  power 
which  makes  him  all  the  more  worth  saving 
— this  wonderful  ability  to  see  when  the  word 
is  to  be  spoken,  and  to  speak  the  word  en- 


AND   THE   minister's   POWER         339 

couragingly  and  even  commandingly,  is  the 
accomplishment  of  a  vigorous,  elastic  Spir- 
itual Life,  which  comprehends  and  focalizes 
all  the  faculties  of  the  soul  and  sends  their 
total  wisdom  at  once  to  the  solution  of  the 
problem. 

There  is  nothing  that  needs  to  be  repeated 
to  our  present  ministry  more  often  than  the 
saying  of  Novalis,  which  has  been  repeated 
by  George  Eliot  in  another  form :  "  Char- 
acter is  educated  will."  The  will  is  supreme 
at  the  instant  when  action  is  before  the  per- 
sonality ;  and  it  is  just  there  that  the  true 
minister  of  Christ  must  get  his  sermon  and 
his  shepherding  in  touch  with  men,  to  up- 
build them.  I  know  of  nothing,  save  the 
Christ  Himself — let  me  speak  it  reverently — 
in  the  hands  of  the  minister,  which  may  take 
a  will-less  solution  of  the  various  component 
elements  which  we  find  in  every  human 
character,  and,  by  the  presence  of  Christ 
introduced  in  this  unorganized  solution,  so 
human  and  yet  so  impotent,  create  a  will, 
or  recreate  all  this  which  is  so  formless  into 
the  form  of  character. 


340  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

Enter  into  the  chemical  laboratory  with 
me  for  a  moment.  Here  is  a  large  glass 
beaker  containing  a  solution  so  cloudy  and 
troublous  and  perhaps  unpleasant  of  odour. 
Now,  nothing  can  be  gotten  out  of  this  solu- 
tion worth  while  until  the  process  of  precipi- 
tation and  crystallization  takes  place.  Take 
a  glass  rod  absolutely  free  from  impurity,  and 
let  it  down  into  this  solution  quietly,  and  lo  ! 
the  process  has  begun.  From  every  quarter 
there  come  in  little,  apparently  wandering 
but  now  strongly  attracted  forms  like  atoms, 
which  now  huddle  around  the  glass  rod, 
until  the  crystallization  is  complete. 

But  the  chemist  has  been  lifting  the  rod 
quietly  and  sympathetically  as  the  process 
goes  on,  until,  when  he  lifts  the  rod  out  and 
away,  there  is  a  crystal  rod  which  has  been 
formed  like  the  pure,  strong  rod  of  crystal 
around  which  it  was  formed.  Does  not  this, 
in  some  way,  picture  for  us  what  is  done  for 
our  poor  will-less  humanity  by  introducing 
Jesus  Christ,  God's  crystal  purity,  into  the 
troublous  impurity  and  formlessness  of 
humanity  ?     A  man's  soul  holds  a  solution 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         341 

which  is  trembling  and  seething  throughout 
with  all  his  little  willings,  which  mean  well, 
but  are  as  nothing  for  determination.  These 
faint  intimations  of  volition  seek  aimlessly 
to  associate  in  a  will  powerful,  true,  and  pure. 
They  seek  after  their  kind,  according  to  a  law 
of  attraction.  They  would  attach  themselves 
to  and  reorganize  themselves  around  a  will. 
Grace  comes  from  above.  Such  a  will  as  the 
Will  Supreme,  reorganizing  life  and  vanquish- 
ing death  at  Calvary, — the  will  of  God  in 
Christ  sympathetically  let  down,  as  it  were, 
into  the  personality, — disturbs  at  once  into 
precipitation,  and  commands  the  moving 
solution  into  a  process  of  crystallization  by 
which  the  many  willings,  which  are  so  pre- 
cious and  yet  so  inefficient,  come  to  be  a  will 
educated  into  the  form  of  character.  As  I 
see  this  rod  lifted  out  from  the  solution,  and 
the  crystal  creation,  or  re-creation,  standing 
before  me,  I  seem  to  hear  certain  words,  and 
I  would  speak  them  with  reverence.  It  was 
as  if  the  original  and  pure  rod  of  crystal  had 
said,  on  departing  from  the  new  creation  : 
"  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away."     A 


342  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

new  will  must  will  for  itself,  after  its  own 
character  in  Christ. 

Of  course,  both  of  these  considerations 
suggest  to  you  that  all  true  ministerial  power 
comes  out  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  which  is  self- 
effacing  and  self-forgetting.  We  must  be 
strong  enough  in  the  Lord,  and  for  men,  to 
drop  any  plan  we  have  once  conceived  for 
their  sake  ;  above  all,  we  must  rely  upon  Jesus 
Christ  to  create  the  new  character  by  giving 
a  new  will  to  weak  humanity,  which  shall 
enable  that  humanity  to  endure  temptation, 
overcome  difficulties,  and  fight  to  the  end  the 
good  fight  of  faith.  In  your  sermon,  this 
self-forgetfulness  will  probably  appear  along 
with  the  unforgetting  insight  which  discovers 
only  the  things  that  imist  be  said  and  that 
ethical  imagination,  which  is  a  kind  of 
memory  of  things  to  be,  and  is  unfailing  in 
measuring  merely  intellectual,  or  emotional, 
or  even  volitional  forces  by  their  effect  upon 
the  conscience. 

I  have  not  time  to  say  more,  at  this  point, 
on  what  has  been  called  the  ability  to  leave 
out  everything  that  is  not  of  supreme  impor- 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         343 

tance  in  a  picture  or  a  sermon,  in  tlie  interest 
of  all  good  productions  of  man's  mind  at  its 
best.  This  brings  about  what  it  is  never  by- 
deliberation  meant  to  be,  namely,  such  an 
artistic  result  as  even  ministers  ought  not 
to  disdain.  SufTer  me  first,  however,  a 
word  with  you  as  to  this  matter  of  the 
conscience  which,  as  I  have  said,  is  to  be 
affected  by  certain  forces  and  in  a  certain 
way. 

The  minister  of  to-morrow  will  recog- 
nize and  value  the  conscience  of  man,  in  his 
preaching,  as  no  minister  of  yesterday  ever 
did  or  could.  While  the  modern  pulpit  has 
often  neglected  the  conscience,  the  bar  and 
the  court  of  law  are  as  deeply  interested 
in  addressing  and  relying  upon  conscience 
as  ever  before.  Our  jurisprudence  appeals, 
for  its  vitality,  to  the  conscience  of  our 
citizenship.  No  law,  to  begin  with,  is  force- 
ful as  a  law,  unless  it  is  the  utterance  of  the 
public  conscience.  No  man  would  think  of 
overturning  our  courts  of  equity,  and  expect 
a  nation  to  abide,  by  advising  the  assumption 
upon  the  part  of  a  jury  and  the  court  that  the 


344  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

conscience  of  man  is  such  a  product  as  the 
feeble  agnosticism  of  ten  or  twenty  years  ago 
announced  it  to  be.  There  is  a  very  serious 
danger  that  our  preached  theology  and 
anthropology  in  regard  to  the  conscience 
may  conspire  with  the  dawdling  criminology 
of  our  day,  and  leave  right  and  wrong,  and 
the  criminal  who  assaults  the  conscience  and 
life  of  the  commonwealth,  out  of  all  serious 
consideration.  Such  a  man  as  Daniel  Web- 
ster, thank  God,  still  represents  our  bar  and 
public  order,  when  he  says  to  court  and  jury  : 
•'  A  sense  of  duty  pursues  us  ever.  It  is  omni- 
present like  the  Deity.  If  we  take  to  ourselves 
the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  sea,  duty  performed,  or 
duty  violated,  is  still  with  us,  for  our  happi- 
ness or  our  misery.  If  we  say  the  darkness 
shall  cover  us,  in  the  darkness  as  in  the  light 
our  obligations  are  yet  with  us.  We  cannot 
escape  their  power,  nor  fly  from  their  pres- 
ence. They  are  with  us  in  this  life,  will  be  with 
us  at  its  close  ;  and^  in  that  scene  of  incon- 
ceivable solemnity,  which  lies  yet  farther  on- 
ward, we  shall  still  find  ourselves  surrounded 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         345 

by  the  consciousness  of  duty,  to  pain  us 
wherever  it  has  been  violated,  and  to  console 
us  so  far  as  God  may  have  given  us  grace  to 
perform  it."  At  the  bar,  with  men  like 
Webster,  now,  in  the  practice  of  law,  are 
those  who  must  hold  the  ethical  positions  of 
the  mighty  past ;  and  they,  if  not  we,  are 
teaching  wayward  society  to  aver,  with 
Lowell's  straightforwardness  : 

"  In  vain  we  call  old  notions  fudge, 

And  bend  our  conscience  to  our  dealing  : 
The  Ten  Commandments  will  not  budge. 
And  stealing  will  continue  stealing." 

If  the  minister  is  willing  that  the  bar,  or  all 
other  organizations  of  human  interests  save 
that  of  the  pulpit,  shall  maintain  the  validity 
of  the  conscience,  he  will  deservedly  lose  the 
respect  of  men.  But  not  for  this  reason  of 
his  unfortunate  isolation  only.  They  will 
disregard  him  for  the  stronger  reason — that  a 
conscienceless  humanity  is  a  hopeless  ruin ; 
and  the  man  who  does  not  address  the  con- 
science, reinforce  the  conscience,  and,  at 
length,  lay  upon  the  conscience  of  man  such 
burdens  as  will  drive  the  guilty  soul  to  Cal- 


346  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

vary  and  to  Christ's  outpoured  blood,  has  no 
place  as  a  factor  in  creating  or  re-creating 
human  civilization. 

Literature,  which,  to  be  immortal,  must  be 
true  to  facts,  has  a  singularly  impressive  way 
of  rightening  up  our  thought  on  these  mat- 
ters ;  and  ultimately,  what  literature  says  will 
be  what  life  has  compelled  writers  of  sagacity 
and  insight,  as  surveyors  of  life's  realm,  to 
say  as  to  what  the  conscience  is  and  what 
sin  really  is.  One  of  our  most  wise  readers 
of  all  excellent  writers  has  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that,  while  Emerson  was  willing  to 
say  somewhat  captiously — "  The  less  we  have 
to  do  with  our  sins  the  better,"  and — "  No 
man  can  afford  to  waste  his  moments  on 
compunctiousness," — the  man  in  the  thick  of 
the  fight  for  a  higher  civilization  has  spoken 
differently.  John  Morley,  for  example,  who 
certainly  cannot  be  called  an  ally  or  defender 
of  orthodoxy,  because  of  any  favourable 
predilections  hitherto  published,  has  said : 
"Emerson  has  little  to  say  of  that  horrid 
burden  and  impediment  on  the  soul  which 
the  churches  call  '  sin^'  and  which,  by  what- 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         347 

ever  name  we  call  it,  is  a  very  real  catastro- 
phe in  the  moral  nature  of  man,"  When 
men  like  this  man  of  men,  in  Britain's  House 
of  Lords,  are  struggling  for  right  as  against 
wrong,  surely  Christ's  minister  should  not 
mystify  the  true  situation  for  all  men  who 
ought  to  be  strong  in  the  battle. 

Dante's  circles  of  flame  would  have  paled 
and  cooled  long  ago,  and  the  blood  on  Lady 
Macbeth' s  hands  would  have  vanished  with- 
out incarnadining  either  the  multitudinous 
seas  or  the  human  memory,  if  sin  and  con- 
science were  not — as  they  have  been  presumed 
to  be — actualities  to  be  regarded  seriously. 
They  are  not  receding  factors,  or  facts,  in 
man's  universe  ;  but  rather  they  are  advanc- 
ing in  interest  and  importance,  as  his  life  at- 
tains nearness  to  his  cherished  ideals.  The 
very  reward  which  a  Hugo  finds  for  his  crea- 
tion of  Jean  Valjean — namely,  numberless 
readers  and  the  respect  of  the  moral  con- 
sciousness of  the  world — this  awaits  the 
preacher,  who,  with  equal  force  and  genius, 
will  respect  the  realities  which  constitute  the 
perennial  message  of  this  novel.     It  is  not 


348  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

to  be  expected,  however,  that  any  man  who 
has  not  had  personal  deliverances  from  sin 
and  sinning,  by  having  been  lifted  out  of  the 
pit  by  a  Perfect  Holiness,  will  ever  address 
men  at  their  deepest,  or  speak  authoritatively 
to  them  at  their  highest. 

Unique  and  commanding,  above  that  of 
all  others,  is  the  view-point  of  the  Christian 
minister  with  respect  to  this  matter  of  human 
sin,  guiltiness,  self-reproach  and  pain.  The 
Spiritual  Life  of  the  minister,  in  its  depths  and 
clearness,  will  furnish  the  means  and  method 
of  estimating,  not  only  the  sinfulness  of  sin, 
but  the  possibility  and  way  of  salvation  from 
sin,  and  sanctification  through  the  divine  life. 
It  grows  by  and  through  his  vision  of  the 
sinless  Christ,  who  makes  for  us  an  estimate, 
in  His  own  blood,  of  the  sinfulness  of  sin. 

Men  talk  of  preparation  for  the  Gospel  min- 
istry I  There  is  no  preparation  to  be  men- 
tioned in  the  same  thought  or  breath,  with  that 
which  comes  of  the  struggle  and  victory,  not 
primarily  over  one's  sins,  but  over  sin  and 
the  sinful  disposition,  in  full  view  of  the  Sin- 
Bearer.     It   cannot   be   accomplished  nega- 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         349 

lively,  and  especially  while  one  is  compelled 
to  make  two  sermons  a  week,  which  will 
satisfy  an  audience  not  yet  trained  to  partici- 
pate, consciously  or  unconsciously,  in  what  is 
a  searching  experience  in  the  minister's  life. 
It  means  the  garden  and  bloody  sweat  of 
Gethsemane,  but  with  Jesus  there  to  help. 

Every  now  and  then  a  man  as  great  as 
Chalmers  has  to  make  his  best  preparation 
for  the  ministry,  as  did  Savonarola,  after  he 
has  been  preaching  for  years.  Nothing  so 
tries  out  and  so  often  quickly  shakes  to  the 
foundations  a  young  John  Wesley ;  nothing 
so  "inducts  him  into  his  holy  office"  as  this 
new  life  of  righteousness,  thus  attained.  It 
often  promises  to  shake  to  pieces  that  which 
we  have  deemed  a  fixed  series  of  truths  for 
our  preaching, — a  series  of  window-like  utter- 
ances for  the  light  that  shall  sweep  in  for  the 
day,  and  as  well  for  the  light  that  shall  sweep 
out  from  within,  through  the  night,  making 
what  we  call  our  faith  luminous  as  a  cathedral. 
It  even  threatens  to  reduce  this  whole  temple 
of  our  solemn  preparedness  to  its  real  worth 
in  our  sight,  and  to  show  us  that  what  we 


350  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

call  value  is  utter  valuelessness  to  any  child 
of  humanity  who  is  scarred  and  stained  by 
sin,  broken,  and  leprous  with  the  invasion  of 
iniquity,  unless  that  child  finds  the  way  of 
light  through  the  Crucified,  himself  crying 
out  at  the  altar  to  which  he  has  crawled,  and 
stretching  his  poor  hand  to  the  priest  at  the 
altar,  the  true  minister  of  that  Christ  Who 
hears  the  otherwise  mute  appeal.  When  we 
have  felt  all  this,  and  have  been  glad  for  the 
transformation  in  us,  made  through  the 
saving  of  a  human  being  in  and  by  our  life 
with  Christ,  we  know  just  what  our  previous 
preparation  for  the  ministry  is  worth,  and 
we  rejoice  in  our  new  estate  with  God  and 
men. 

What  a  terrible  moment  it  is,  in  the  life  of 
a  minister,  when  some  wretched  being,  with 
the  form  of  our  humanity,  crouches  before  a 
temptation  which  he  fears  and  hates,  and 
then  comes  pleadingly  to  him,  bringing  a 
more  vivid  sense  of  moral  values,  with  his 
more  illumined  conscience,  than  the  minister 
himself  has !  Woe  to  the  preacher  who,  at 
that  moment,  is  not  commanded,  consoled, 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         35 1 

and  rescued,  in  this  presence,  by  his  vision  of 
the  sinlessness  and,  therefore,  moral  beautiful- 
ness  of  Jesus  ! 

The  sinner  has  sinned  down  beneath  his 
blunders  as,  long  before  this  moment,  he  has 
sinned  beneath  the  pleasures  of  his  prodigal 
days,  also;  and,  having  sinned  to  the  very 
bottom,  he  finds  a  certain  revolt  within  him 
which  is  the  rebound  of  the  soul  upward 
towards  its  own.  There  is  nothing  which  he 
now  beholds  which  makes  the  original  strings 
of  its  being  vibrate  so  surely  and  with  such 
haunting  intimations  of  harmony,  as  the 
figure  and  face  of  Jesus,  Who  was  and  is  the 
all-harmony,  for  ''He  ivas  without  sinJ^  Now, 
the  minister  cannot  be  a  disinterested  party 
when  this  vision  has  come  and  produced 
conviction  and  longing,  in  the  mind  of  that 
sinner,  especially  if,  by  some  fortunate  or 
prudent  word  spoken  in  this  minister's 
sermon,  he  himself  may  have  roused  this 
man  to  the  dream  and  possibility  of  a  new 
life.  Sometimes  it  is  perillous  for  him  to 
quote  from  a  soul  more  fluent  with  God  than 
his  own.     If  even  the  minister  now  finds  that, 


352  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

as  he  preached  yesterday,  there  came  into  his 
discourse  and  out  of  the  Spiritual  Life  of 
another,  from  whom  he  repeated  a  certain 
vigorous  passage,  quoting  it,  inviting  it  in 
from  the  side  of  the  sluggish  stream  of  his 
own  lower  Spiritual  Life  as  it  went  on,  seeking 
expression  for  itself  in  the  sermon,  and,  by 
the  quotation,  letting  in  a  fresher,  clearer,  and 
more  rapidly  progressing  stream  from  the 
heights  above, — if  even  the  minister  now  has 
learned,  for  the  first  time,  that  some  better 
Spiritual  Life  than  his  own  is  likely  to  win  such 
a  man  as  this,  whom  he  is  now  sincerely  try- 
ing to  help  with  a  helpfulness  not  altogether 
satisfactory  to  himself,  surely  he  is  a  most 
interested  party  on  two  sides.  He  may  well 
ask  of  his  own  heart  and  his  work  as  a  min- 
ister, if  a  greater  Spiritual  Life,  coming  from 
a  more  authoritative  vision  of  Jesus  within 
him,  might  not  win  for  him  the  responses  of 
many  such  as  this  poor  creature.  He  may, 
and  he  must,  ask  how  he  may  get  hold  of  a 
more  pronounced  and  arresting  conception 
of  the  reality  of  sin,  as  its  darkness  slidders 
against  the  whiteness  of  Christ's  sinlessness, 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         353 

or  even  as  this  was  visioned  by  the  mind 
whose  words  he  quoted. 

Wonderful  are  the  blessings  of  self-forget- 
fulness,  when  it  comes  from  an  all-absorbing 
and  authoritative  ethical  ideal — personal  and 
glorious  in  the  sinless  Redeemer.  It  is  this 
self-forgetfulness  which  never  makes  the 
confusion,  even  in  our  sermon-writing,  or 
our  preaching,  or  our  shepherding — a  con- 
fusion such  as  Whistler,  the  painter,  rebuked, 
when  a  young  lady,  who  had  been  labouring 
upon  a  canvas,  was  approached  by  the  artist. 
He  said  of  her  work :  "  This  will  not  do." 
"  Why,"  she  asserted,  "  you  said  to  me  to 
pamt  as  I  seeT  "  Yes,"  he  replied,  "  I  know 
I  did  ;  but  you  are  seeing  as  you  pamt P 

Only  the  love  of  Christ,  abounding,  joyous, 
and  altogether  gathering  our  faculties  into  its 
delight,  will  free  us  from  such  illusions.  It  is 
an  awful  thing  for  a  minister  to  be  satisfied  in 
beholding  Christ  only  in  accord  with  his 
habit  of  preaching  about  Him,  imposing  his 
impoverishing  limitations  upon  Him,  and 
projecting  his  tone  of  cynicism  upon  Him,  or 
half-hiding  the  otherwise  glorious  portrait  by 


354  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

and  in  the  shadow  and  gloom  of  himself — a 
shadow  and  gloom  produced,  as  has  been 
said,  "  because  he  has  the  sun  at  his  back." 
It  is  one  of  the  most  vivid  pictures  of  Simon 
Peter's  soul  when,  as  he  flees  from  Rome 
only  to  meet  his  Master  and  His  "  Quo 
Vadis^'  we  are  told  that  "  he  strove  to  think 
he  did  his  Master's  will."  Let  your  Spiritual 
Life  be  such  an  adoration,  and  with  its  central 
and  regnant  figure,  Jesus  Christ,  so  become 
the  very  blood  circulating  through  your  whole 
personality,  that  you  become  intent  upon 
Christ's  errand,  seeking  to  do  the  thing,  for 
man  and  with  man,  which  His  presence  in 
you  intimates  must  be  done  by  those  who 
constitute  now  His  " body" — His  only  chosen 
means  of  reaching  His  brothers — with  the 
presence  and  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit, — then, 
you  will  be  exempted  from  every  petty  task, 
and  you  will  be  delivered  over  to  the  larger 
and  sweeter  service  for  men  and  Him. 

Then,  how  appealingly  the  neediest  man 
holds  you  by  one  hand,  pulling  with  his 
pathetic  necessities  ;  while  the  Christ  holds 
you  by  the  other  hand,  assuring  you  of  His 


AND   THE   minister's   POWER         355 

power  and  willingness  to  meet  these  neces- 
sities, through  you.  This  it  is  that  gives  you 
dignity — a  position  made  by  the  presence  of 
Christ,  with  your  one  hand  in  His,  and  the 
presence  of  the  needy  humanity  which  holds 
to  your  other  hand  and  which  appeals  through 
you  to  Him,  desperately  confident  that  it 
must  receive  its  everything  through  you, 
from  Him. 

There  can  be  no  greater  reward  in  the 
thing  itself,  or  in  the  joy  flowing  from  it,  than 
to  make  a  place  for  Christ  in  a  human 
life.  For  example,  you  are  taking,  as  I 
have  taken,  a  pardon  to  a  man  in  jail.  You 
look  through  the  grating  of  steel,  which  has 
separated  him  so  long  from  freedom  and 
association  with  his  fellow  men.  If  you  can 
withhold  your  emotions  from  the  flood  that 
rises  in  you,  you  may  hear  him  say,  as  I 
have  heard  him  say:  "Yes,  this  is  my 
pardon  ;  but  do  you  know  why  I  am  here  ? 
I  am  here,  and  I  have  been  here  so  long, 
because  I  have  not  the  power  to  keep  me 
from  doing  certain  things  that  are  lawless 
and   evil.      Thank    God   and   you   for   this 


356  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

pardon,  I  say:  but  I  tell  you  that  /  need  a 
friend.  Do  you  know  that  I  think  that  if 
you,  who  bring  me  this  pardon,  would  only 
be  my  friend,  and  I  could  lean  up  against 
you  and  obey  the  command  of  your  love  for 
me — for  I  believe  you  do  love  me,  because 
you  have  brought  to  me  this  pardon — then, 
if  you  would  stick  to  me,  I  could  go  out  of 
here  safely.  Then,  you  see,  this  pardon 
would  mean  so  much  more  to  me  and  to  all 
whom  I  love.  Jiist  be  my  friend^ — will  you  ? 
— so  that  my  pardon  may  be  woj'-th  while  /" 

Now,  if  you  have  had  a  similar  experience  in 
preaching  or  in  shepherding,  with  any  human 
soul,  you  know  how  instantly  and  command- 
ingly  Jesus  Christ,  the  author  of  the  pardon, 
the  only  omnipotent  Friend,  Who,  ail-wisely 
and  unfailingly,  will  go,  side  by  side,  with 
the  pardoned  soul,  steps  into  your  place,  fills 
it,  and  fills  all  this  weak  man's  whole  world, 
beside,  with  the  infinite  majesty,  not  only  of 
His  pardoning  love  to  get  him  out,  but  His 
sanctifying  grace  and  help,  to  keep  him  from 
sinning,  and  so  getting  into  prison  again. 

This  self-forgetting  quality  of  our  Spiritual 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         357 

Life  alone  makes  us  able  to  treat  fairly  what 
else  would  seem  the  contrarieties  of  our 
Scriptures  and  the  apparent  contrarieties  of 
life.  There  are  many  statements  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  of  first  importance  to  the  help  of 
genuine  spirituality,  which  will  never  be 
true  to  us  until  their  truth  has  been  experi- 
enced by  us.  I  have  witnessed  the  effort  of 
an  immature  clergyman  to  preach  on  the 
text,  "  A?id  the  Lamb  shall  be  their  Shepherd^ 
He  took  many  precious  moments  in  attempt- 
ing to  clear  up  the  confusion  as  to  metaphor. 
He  said  many  times,  "  How  may  a  lamb  be 
a  shepherd?"  In  it  all  he  disclosed  how 
much  may  be  learned  only  through  experi- 
ence, which  no  metaphor  can  teach,  or  pre- 
vent from  being  true.  In  spite  of  any  rhe- 
torical offense,  any  living  soul  knows  that  the 
power  which  saves  a  man  is  the  same  power 
that  protects  and  leads  and  sanctifies  him. 
"  The  Lamb  shall  be  their  Shepherd."  Now, 
this  is  the  experience  of  all  true  ministry. 

There  is  a  certain  set  of  forces,  powerful 
motives  and  ideals,  which  may  be  named 
"  the   Lamb."     Redemption  is  a  fact.     The 


358  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

glory  and  burden  of  the  ministry  is  the  once 
slain  and  now  enthroned  Lamb — the  Cross 
of  the  Christ  whom  Paul  adored.  As  soon 
and  as  long  as  one  is  a  proclaimer  of  the 
Word  of  Life,  so  soon  and  so  long  will  the 
music  of  his  speech  be  the  music  of  redemp- 
tion to  him,  through  the  sacrifice  of  innocence. 
But  there  is  something  for  God's  grace  to  do, 
with  and  for  human  nature,  more  than  just  to 
rescue  it,  even  by  redemption,  possessed,  as 
His  redemption  is,  with  these  high  spiritual 
values.  Human  nature  must  be  shepherded  ; 
and  here  is  the  realm  of  the  minister,  not  as 
preacher  so  much  as  pastor.  He  can  be 
neither  of  these  until  this  truth  is  lived  by 
him.  But  they  are  not  two  men  in  his  own 
experience.  One,  the  man  living  this  Gospel 
of  being  redeemed  by  the  Lamb  and  being 
also  shepherded,  comes  to  have  the  slain 
Lamb  as  the  glorious  figure  in  his  sermon. 
The  shepherding  is  as  much  a  matter  of  con- 
sequence as  ever  anything  may  be,  in  the 
development  of  character  in  the  preacher. 
It  comes  through  following  out  the  duty 
implied  in  his  first  address  to  his  fellow  man, 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         359 

and  in  the  following  out  of  that  culture  of 
character,  which  is  the  setting  permanently  of 
moral  foundations  within  him,  and  the  build- 
ing up  of  Christian  personality — all  again 
implied  and  prophesied  in  his  first  experience 
of  being  saved  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  Lamb. 
This  is  only  an  example,  but  it  is  to  my  pur- 
pose. 

That  the  divine  life  is  livable  in  humanity 
and  by  humanity  is  a  conviction  that  has 
roots  in  personal  experience  alone.  If  a 
minister  is  ever  to  be  delivered  from  un- 
vital  ideals  and  devitalizing  effort,  it  must 
be  by  a  vitality  which  is  very  personal  and 
works  with  the  expulsiveness  of  a  good  seed 
occupying  the  soil  to  the  exclusion  of  every- 
thing else.  A  living  Gospel  in  the  minister 
will  produce  a  Gospel  for  men  in  and  out  of 
every  life,  and  such  a  Gospel  will  no  more 
tolerate  apologetics  in  the  name  of  its  safety 
than  life  will  permit  any  other  waste  of  time. 
It  is  its  own  reason  for  being  and  enduring. 

The  process  which  is  going  on  in  the  minis- 
ter is  also  working  its  miracles,  and,  indeed, 
repeating  the  whole  life  of  Christ,  from  His 


36o  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

birth  to  His  ascension,  in  the  experiences  of 
the  minister's  people.  The  growth  of  minis- 
ter and  his  people  is  their  growth  together. 
They  have  the  same  food  and  share  one  ex- 
perience of  labour  and  piety,  and  are  so 
directed  by  the  same  forces  and  towards  the 
same  goal,  that  minister  and  congregation 
are  perpetually  interested  in  the  same  things 
and  abide,  ever  interesting  to  each  other.  The 
impulse  of  his  preaching,  the  reason  for  it, 
and  the  source  of  its  power — these  are  as 
much  realizable  and  realized  forces  in  the 
lives  of  the  men  and  women  touched  by  his 
life,  as  they  are  in  his  own.  Let  no  man, 
however,  take  this  for  granted,  if  he  has  not 
that  sort  of  spiritual  vitality  which  is  con- 
tagious. An  audience  knows  that  he  cannot 
put  it  into  the  speech  of  a  community.  It 
requires  a  pervasive  life.  The  community 
will  feel  it  quickly  enough — when  you  are,  or 
are  becoming  sapless  and  will  soon  be  in  the 
sere  and  yellow  leaf,  if  there  be  leaves  at  all. 
To  keep  them  from  this  discovery,  leaves  may 
not  be  hung  on  the  branches  of  the  trees  in 
your  orchard.     Something  must  be  done  for 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         361 

the  roots  of  the  trees,  so  that  fresh  leaves 
will  grow  there,  else  they  will  fade  in  the 
mind. 

In  such  a  case,  your  sermons — I  venture  to 
use  an  illustration  from  my  experience — are 
like  some  paintings  I  had  to  pass  by  recendy. 
My  poor  ardst  friend  had  no  living  connec- 
tion with  the  live  thing  called  nature.  In 
his  pictures,  the  sun  always  comes  too  soon ; 
the  grass  has  not  yet  its  diamonds  full  and 
ready  for  effulgent  day  ;  his  sky  says  six, 
when  it  is  only  five  o'clock  on  the  clover. 
Painters  must  be  true  to  earth  and  sky,  for 
these  have  a  common  chronology. 

Mr.  Beecher  never  failed  in  giving  his  audi- 
ence refreshment  from  the  nature  he  touched, 
for  she  responded  to  him  as  a  maiden  who 
has  heard  a  whisper  of  love.  Study  the 
nature  which  you  find  in  the  Bible.  It  will 
make  your  sermons  more  Biblical  than  your 
quoting  texts.  "  Height  of  the  sky  ?  I  touch 
it  with  my  stick."  "Whose  stick?"  I  won- 
der. Never  touch  the  sea  or  the  sky 
with  your  walking-stick,  unless  you  have  the 
oceanic  feeling  and  a  sky  of  faith.     Beneath 


362  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

the  brightness  of  the  sea  there  must  be  depth, 
else  the  brightness  is  a  glory  imposed  upon 
the  ocean,  not  a  response  of  the  infinite  in 
the  sea  to  the  infinite  in  the  sky.  Deep  must 
ever  call  unto  deep,  in  all  art.  Some  of  our 
recent  nature-books  have  been  so  reproduced 
in  the  form  of  preaching,  that  any  trick  of 
appearing  to  be  on  good  terms  with  nature 
has  worn  its  welcome  out  to  our  audiences. 
A  Thoreau,  a  John  Burroughs,  or  a  Richard 
Jefferies  will  hardly  do,  at  second-hand. 
Tricks  cannot  achieve  the  results  of  real  in- 
spiration, any  more  than  the  most  elaborately 
wrought  of  paper  roses  can  yield  a  drop  of 
pure  attar.  It  is  only  the  reality  of  feeling, 
in  your  speech,  that  awakes  the  reality  in  him 
who  listens  ^to  it.  Honour  your  own  experi- 
ence by  refusing  to  steal,  or  even  to  imbibe 
too  lawlessly  from  another.  Once  I  saw  the 
Hypatia  of  Kingsley,  done  in  marble,  by 
Thornycroft.  The  difference  in  portraiture 
was  only  this  ;  she  had  grown  up  in  Kingsley's 
soul,  whereas,  in  Thornycroft' s,  she  had  been 
manufactured  from  Kingsley's  experience 
with  her.     The   moment  we   appeal   to  an- 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         363 

Other's  experience  we  cannot  create ;  we  only 
manufacture. 

And  this  leads  me  to  say  that  there  is  an- 
other thing  almost  as  vicious  as  stealing, 
and  that  is  your  so  getting  into  debt, 
to  any  and  all  others,  who  are  themselves  as 
dependent  for  first-hand  treasure  from  God  as 
yourselves,  that  you  must  go  along  through 
life  as  debtors  only.  Delayed  payment  of 
just  debts,  intellectual  and  moral,  involves 
paying  very  high  interest :  yet  the  gods  never 
take  usury.  While  this  is  true,  let  us,  by  the 
strength  of  our  spiritual  life,  so  draw  from 
God  that,  as  His  children,  we  may  escape 
the  thralldom  of  debt  unto  men.  If  you  must 
get  into  debt  intellectually,  get  into  debt  unto 
God  and  to  the  great  souls  who  can  afford  to 
carry  you.  Let  us  never  break  the  com- 
mandment against  theft.  Small  persons 
practice  petty  larceny,  and  abscond  with 
phraseology  which  pleases  them,  wherever 
they  may  get  it.  Larger  persons  practice 
grand  larceny,  and  take  ideas.  Nothing  will 
keep  you  from  plagiarism,  but  the  richness  of 
the  Spiritual  Life,  which  must  ever  think  and 


364  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

feel  and  express  itself  honestly.  The  freshness 
and  power  of  assimilation,  that  necessity  for 
true  expression  involved  in  the  opulence  of 
the  Spiritual  Life,  will  make  it  possible  for  any 
of  you  to  read  the  most  masterful  of  men  and 
leave  his  neighbourhood  with  nothing,  save 
and  except  the  inspiration  of  his  mastery 
upon  you. 

The  Spiritual  Life  alone,  whose  main  in- 
terest is  God  Himself  and  His  redemption  of 
humanity,  will  guarantee  to  the  mind  both 
the  God  ward  and  man  ward  aspects,  for  ex- 
ample, of  Nature,  as  also  of  History  and 
Literature  and  Art.  Its  flood  of  interest 
towards  God  will  exclude  from  the  mind  any 
view  of  nature  which  can  be  put  into  a  ser- 
mon only  as  a  piece  of  mosaic,  which  de- 
naturalizes everything  at  once  for  your  con- 
gregation. Instead  of  all  this,  there  comes, 
by  way  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  through 
the  minds  and  lives  of  all,  a  spiritual 
movement,  a  recognition  of  that  which  the 
minstrel  brings  to  the  minister  for  a  truer 
interpretation — the  Soul  in  nature  which 
anticipates  the  instant : 


AND   THE   minister's   POWER         365 

When,  from  this  threshold  of  being,  these  steps  of 
the  Presence,  this  precinct. 
Into  the  matrix  of  Life  darkly  divinely  resumed, 
Man  and  his  littleness  perish,  erased  like  an  error 
and  cancelled, 
Man  and  his  greatness  survive,  lost  in  the  great- 
ness of  God." 


Then  take  the  interest  of  nature  manward. 
Nothing  has  made  our  greatest  preachers  of 
any  time  so  competent  with  natural  phe- 
nomena and  nature's  messages  to  the  relig- 
ious hfe,  as  their  love  of  humanity.  Remem- 
ber that  their  love  of  nature  is  more  than 
a  love  of  natural  science ;  it  is  a  passion 
more  than  a  study.  Every  such  minister  also 
loves  men  more  than  any  science  dealing  with 
men.  Each  of  them  seems  to  have  touched 
nature  with  kingly  powers  of  interpretation, 
and  rejoiced  ;  and  then  to  have  looked  farther, 
and  said : 


Round  the  cape  of  a  sudden  came  the  sea, 
And  the  sun  looked  over  the  mountain's  rim : 
And  straight  was  a  path  of  gold  for  him, 
And  the  need  of  a  world  of  men  for  me." 


When  a  minister  has  become  divinely  ac- 
quainted with  the  world  of  men,  through  the 


366  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  as  manifested  in 
the  minister's  own  life,  his  whole  universe, 
beside  physical  nature,  becomes  not  only  hu- 
manized, but  divinized.  This,  first  of  all,  re- 
inforces him  with  the  methods  of  nature,  so 
that,  if  his  studies  bring  to  his  door  the  per- 
sons and  events  of  human  history  and  they 
throng  for  recognition  or  speech  in  his  ser- 
mon, he  has  a  philosophy  of  history  with 
which  to  welcome  and  entertain  them,  and  to 
get  the  best  out  of  each  one  of  them,  for  the 
people  who  are  hearing  him.  The  minister's 
method  of  studying  history,  to  be  either  safe 
for  him  or  helpful  to  his  message  and  influ- 
ence among  men,  must  have  its  source  and 
inspiration  in  his  own  Spiritual  Life — God's 
perpetual  coming  into  humanity,  which  has 
its  supreme  illustration  in  the  incarnation  of 
God  through  Jesus  Christ.  If  a  minister  is 
not  able  to  preach  this  truth,  and  because  he 
knows  its  truth  in  God's  life  within  his  own, 
he  can  see  no  unity  in  history;  and  there 
appears  again  that  wretched  dualism,  which, 
in  the  study  of  history,  has  made  men  ac- 
customed to  call  some   of  it  sacred  and  all 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         367 

else  in  man's  life-story  profane.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Spiritual  Life  authenticates 
the  validity  of  all  one's  proper  undertakings 
in  the  pulpit  and  out  of  it.  It  has  its  own 
testimony  as  to  what  is  safe  and  wise  for  a 
minister  to  try  to  do,  either  as  a  preacher  or 
pastor.  Let  him  submit  to  Omnipotence, 
and  undertake  the  inevitable;  the  irresistible 
current  of  the  divine  life  will  invite  and  bear 
up  what  argosies  may  and  ought  to  move 
upon  its  flood.  He  is  in  the  power  of  God 
working  in  history. 

I  need  not  say  that,  to  the  strongest  of  us, 
this  means  richer  and  stronger  personal  life 
with  men  and  God.  Genius  may  do  without 
food  and  fire,  but  it  cannot  do  without  fellow- 
ship. Dilettanteism  will  be  the  result  always, 
when  the  elemental  presses  no  longer  through 
our  gates  for  utterance.  The  artist,  in  living, 
speaking  and  doing,  never  humours  the  ele- 
mental, as  does  the  dilettante  ;  he  submits  to 
it.  What  makes  these  true  makes  it  true, 
also,  that  helpful  preaching  is  far  from  all 
rhapsodical  productions  of  any  kind.  They 
betray  lack   of  vitality.     Each   is   the  shrill 


368  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

Utterance  of  decaying  emotion,  or  the  tragic 
farewell-appearance  of  a  vanishing  idea. 

Always  revere  and  seek  personalities,  so 
you  can  live  with  the  greatest  of  them  in  joy 
and  peace.  Then  you  will  never  substitute 
a  bloodless  discourse,  on  some  mighty  man 
or  woman  of  God,  for  a  portrait.  Even  Sir 
Joshua's  lectures,  read  in  the  atmosphere 
created  by  such  a  portrait  as  he  made  of 
Mrs.  Siddons,  seem  like  a  grammarian's  or 
philologist's  discourses  on  the  language  in 
which  Shakespeare's  Lear  enchains  our  souls 
to  his  own.  Even  his  account  of  himself  is 
talent  attempting  to  record  genius. 

Live  for  insight,  for  form  and  method  are 
consequent  upon  insight.  The  insight  which 
makes  Jesus  the  Master  of  men  may  be  won- 
derfully communicated  to  us — in  all  these 
miracles  of  empowerment.  Jesus  relies  upon 
the  principle  of  generation  and  regenera- 
tion of  the  most  natural  kind — a  communal 
life  for  Him  and  us — saying:  "I  am  the 
vine ;  ye  are  the  branches."  As  the  same 
sap  fills  both  vine  and  branches,  so  God  fills 
our  life,  as  He  filled  the  life  of  Jesus.     So, 


AND   THE   minister's   POWER         369 

also,  we  may  have  hope  that,  just  as  the  ap- 
parent contradictions  of  truth  are  swept 
within  one  circle  of  His  comprehension,  in 
the  form  of  some  promise  of  His  grace,  or 
some  command  of  His  conscience,  so  it  is 
He  within  us,  Who  communicates  to  our 
natures  the  comprehensiveness  of  character 
in  which  all  the  faculties  are  given  life, 
strength,  and  unity.  There  is  one  repre- 
sentative Man,  one  complete  Man  ;  not  only 
so  far  as  the  universe  and  history  go,  but 
more  fundamentally.  In  Him  all  things  of 
the  human  personality  consist.  The  else 
disorderly  and  errant  faculties,  that  so  often 
are  met  within  us,  only  to  be  vagrant  and  an- 
archic within  us,  will  compose,  when  they  are 
composed  by  the  inner  influence  of  Jesus' 
presence.  This  alone  will  give  unity  and 
comprehensiveness  to  our  preaching. 

We  need  to  hear  our  Christ  saying  to  us, 
as  His  wounded  hand  is  lifted  in  benediction 
over  the  topics  and  texts  which  we  have  not 
preached  upon,  while  we  turn  admiringly  to 
the  topics  and  texts  which  our  partialness  of 
nature  and  our  incompleteness  of  life  have 


370  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

preached  upon  so  often,  thus  giving  men 
only  a  fragment  of  Gospel :  "  These  things  ye 
ought  to  have  done,  and  not  left  the  other 
undone."  The  minister  needs  to  know  that 
we  are  as  partial,  and  to  that  extent  untrue,  as 
we  are  pious  and  Scriptural,  when  our  Christ 
has  told  us,  until  it  has  been  spoken  within 
the  depths  of  our  very  souls,  some  one  truth 
which,  for  the  reason  of  our  personal  incom- 
pleteness, we  accept  to  the  exclusion  of 
another  equally  important.  We  need  to  hear 
Him  tell  us  the  "  ^/^t* "  truth.  "He  saith 
unto  them,  again''  We  do  not  need  to 
compromise  as  between  these  apparently 
antagonistic  ideas,  or  as  between  many,  or 
with  the  many  seeming  oppositions  in  Chris- 
tian teaching.  They  cannot  be  compromised  ; 
they  must  be  comprehended  in  our  life,  as 
they  are  in  the  life  of  the  Christ,  and  in 
His  message. 

The  end  to  which  all  these  efficiencies, 
consequential  upon  depth  and  strength  and 
richness  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  must  be  obedient 
is,  of  course,  ministerial  effectiveness.  Shall 
your  sermon  be  shorter  or  longer  ?    The  age 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         37 1 

says  it  must  be  shorter;  but  I  notice  that 
the  age  is  determined,  nevertheless,  and 
indeed,  above  all,  to  get  itself  and  its  baggage 
from  the  terminus  "  a  quo  "  to  the  terminus 
"  ad  quetn  " — I  shall  say  from  Chicago  to 
New  York.  Nobody  has  been  foolish 
enough  to  attempt  to  shorten  the  distance  ; 
the  number  of  miles  remains  the  same  be- 
tween the  cities ;  the  space  and  the  scenery 
will  be  there  when  our  fifteen  or  eighteen 
hour  train  has  made  way  for  the  aeroplane. 
Even  then  the  scenery  and  the  space  will  lie 
there,  below  our  speed.  What  our  congre- 
gation really  wishes  is  what  the  man  who 
hastens  between  these  two  cities  wishes — to 
get  to  his  destination  as  soon  as  possible. 
The  destination  and  the  distance  he  cannot, 
or  will  not,  change.  What  does  it  mean? 
It  means  a  road-bed  like  rock  ;  ties  tougher 
and  sounder ;  flawless  rails  of  steel  for  track, 
heavier  and  of  unquestioned  fineness  and 
strength.  If  this  were  all,  in  the  preacher's 
case,  he  might  do  without  a  stronger  and 
finer  Spiritual  Life,  but  the  railway  also  must 
have  a  better  engine.     Fiercer  flames  in  the 


372  THE   SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

fire-box,  cylinders  and  condensers  of  higher 
potency  and  every  wheel  and  screw  of  in- 
fallible security — all  these  the  mightier  mech- 
anism demands.  The  short  sermon,  if  it  is 
to  take  the  hearers  of  it  safely  from  one  point 
to  another,  and  not  merely  go  part  way,  or  to 
jump  the  track,  means  for  each  of  this  sort  of 
"  train  of  thought  "  and  road, — Spiritual  Life 
of  a  far  higher  quality. 

Let  me  speak  of  another  of  these,  which 
are  called  "  litde  things."  If  they  seem  litde 
things,  let  me  again  assure  you  that  they  are 
great  enough  to  defend  our  vineyard  from 
"  the  little  foxes  which  destroy  the  vines." 

The  Spiritual  Life  will  do  as  much  for  you  in 
granting  you  the  quality  of  courtesy,  with  all 
it  involves  of  knightliness  and  grace.  Chris- 
tianity is  indeed  "a  compliment  to  human 
nature."  Be  sure  that  you  treat  all  men,  in 
the  light  of  their  possibilides.  If  a  man  looks 
at  other  men,  in  all  their  prose,  as  poems  in 
the  making  under  the  influence  of  rhythmic 
influences,  he  is  likely  to  realize  how  far  gra- 
ciousness  of  manner  and  generosity  of  treat- 
ment may  go  to  make  these  other  lives  at 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         373 

least  worth  living.  Old  Thomas  Decker  has 
told  us  that  Jesus  was  the  "  first  true  gentle- 
man that  ever  breathed."  It  is  not  irreverence 
that  speaks  of  our  Christ  as  "  God  Almighty's 
Gentleman."  Let  us  not  be  fearful  that  these 
make  Him  less  divine.  His  manliness  is  the 
power  within  us,  to  quicken  our  own  and 
foster  it.  His  gentleness  is  the  genial  climate 
He  brings  with  Him — a  climate  celestially 
adapted  to  woo  harvests  out  of  seeds,  and 
strew  hedges  with  blossoms,  and  hang  clusters 
of  grapes  in  the  forests,  and  arbours  in  our 
otherwise  fruitless  life.  A  gentleman,  in  and 
out  of  the  pulpit,  is  the  finest  and  most  elo- 
quent of  sermons — a  whole  vital  exposition  of 
the  Gospel  in  Christ  Jesus,  when,  with  eyes  that 
are  windows  of  character,  through  which  the 
light  pours  by  day,  and  out  of  which  the 
kindled  radiance  pours  through  in  many- 
coloured  glory  at  night ;  with  a  hand  for  guid- 
ance and  blessing,  and  lips  musical  with  truth 
and  love,  he  speaks  his  message.  No  man 
is  ever  a  man  of  truest  courtesy  until  he  is 
of  the  manner  born,  in  the  new-birth.  His 
heart   is   then  at  the  court  of  the  Highest, 


374  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

doing  homage  to  Jesus,  his  Lord,  breathing 
in  the  chivalry  which  led  Jesus  to  His  cross 
on  Calvary. 

Just  as  the  most  slavish  literalism  with  re- 
gard to  the  Bible  and  its  authority  vanishes 
before  the  liberty  which  comes,  along  with 
that  higher  law  of  love  and  liberty  which 
binds  every  man  with  a  new  affection  to 
Truth,  through  a  more  spiritual  use  of  the 
Bible,  so  the  tyranny  of  ecclesiasticism,  or 
that  more  perillous  tyranny  of  one's  own 
anarchic  disregard  of  all  order,  passes  away  in 
the  more  spiritual  use  we  make  of  our  church 
occasions,  even  church  councils  and  the  like. 
Then  the  truths  of  the  Bible  run  into  the  new 
molds  offered  us  by  modern  scholarship,  and 
the  vivification  of  the  ecclesiastical  life  is  so 
assured  that  machines  go,  and  processes  of 
growth  begin  and  flourish.  The  preventive 
of  weakness  always  is  power.  Power  is  the 
product  of  life.  Only  a  life's  spirituality  is 
successfully  set  against  such  pulpit  pests,  if 
we  may  not  call  them  sins,  as  verbosity, 
hysteria  and  disputatiousness.  They  all 
come,  not  from  the  pulpit  itself,  but  from  the 


AND   THE   minister's   POWER         375 

person  in  the  pulpit.  They  arise  from 
either  unhealthful,  or  fragmentary  char- 
acter. The  remedy  for  them  all  is  spiritual 
health,  holiness,  wholeness. 

Men  are  continually  mistaking,  for  ex- 
ample, what  is  really  and  only  preserva- 
tism  for  what  they  think  is  very  respectable 
— I  mean  conservatism.  The  passion  for 
taking  dry  seeds  and  labelling  them, 
in  order  that  they  may  be  safe,  belongs 
not  to  orthodoxy  of  the  Church  alone.  It 
never  does  the  work  of  a  true  conservative. 
He  conserves  who  plants  the  seeds.  Here 
as  elsewhere,  extremes  meet ;  and  he  becomes 
the  true  radical.  Radicalism — Radix  mean- 
ing "  root  " — is  rootedness.  There,  again,  you 
come  upon  life  itself,  and  all  our  valuable 
certitude  or  confidence  feels  its  way  down  to 
this  rootedness  which  goes  on  and  ever  on, 
inside  our  dim  but  real  secret-places,  through 
a  process  of  life.  It  is  so  in  all  things.  Just 
as  the  Spiritual  Life  fosters  such  growth  in  a 
man  that  there  develops  an  originality  in  him, 
or  an  impulse  for  originating,  accordant  with 
that  Spiritual  Life's  assimilation  and  trans- 


376  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

formation  of  what  he  touches,  so  the  modera- 
tion and  poise,  which  are  to  "  be  known  of  all 
men,"  are  obtained,  not  by  mechanically 
slowing  down  some  machinery  for  the  sake 
of  simply  running  more  slowly  to  meet  an 
extraneous  suggestion.  It  comes  of  whole- 
some life-processes,  which  show  that  high 
pressure  is  disease,  and  life  with  its  sensi- 
tiveness to  the  load  it  pulls  or  bears,  is  not 
amenable  to  whim  from  without,  or  any 
mechanical  direction  whatsoever. 

This  kind  of  moderation  in  the  minister 
does  not  cool  the  heart  of  his  courage.  And 
we  must  not  forget  that  a  certain  very  high 
value  inheres  in  that  spirituality  which  to- 
day is  likely  to  be  too  little  appreciated,  and 
which  alone  has  the  vigour  and  rigour  needed 
to  keep  courage  alive  and  to  furnish  the  he- 
roic note,  in  all  our  speech  and  action.  The 
Church  is  likely  to  realize  that  she  is  com- 
paratively poor  in  these  days  ;  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  Church  will  be  poorer  in 
material  things,  and  at  length  become  very 
poor,  before  she  shall  become,  in  turn,  and 
rightfully,   the    mistress    and    ruler    of    the 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S  POWER         377 

treasures  of  the  world.  It  is  certain  that  the 
hold  which  the  Church  has  had  upon  money 
and  property,  throughout  her  large  and  rich 
communion,  has  not  been  regarded  as  well 
taken  ;  and  the  easy  and  comfortable  relation- 
ship of  the  pulpit  to  ill-gotten  wealth,  in  our 
time  of  speculation  and  greed,  has  been  so 
successfully  assailed  that,  in  the  ruin  of  cer- 
tain quite  ancient  and  honourable  theories  as 
to  the  relation  of  morality  and  religion  to 
swollen  fortunes,  associated  with  hopeless 
poverty,  many  an  ecclesiastical  rush-light  has 
been  made  ineffective  and  many  a  base 
compromise  has  been  destroyed.  Thus  the 
Church,  as  a  financial  institution,  will  prob- 
ably become  poorer,  before  she  finds  in  her 
hand  the  spiritual  power  which  shall  enable 
her  to  whip  the  traders  from  the  temple  and 
appreciate  the  mite  of  the  poor  widow. 

This  courage  to  speak,  or  to  be  silent  both  in 
love  and  righteousness,  must  come  through  a 
ministry  so  devoted  to  spiritual  realities  that 
it  may  follow  Him  who  had  not  where  to  lay 
His  head.  Rigorous  indeed  will  be  the  blasts 
which  .  blow    upon     the    sycophancy     and 


378  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

cowardice  of  a  pulpit,  or  that  of  a  pastor's 
voice,  where  either  of  these  is  allied  with 
earthly  interests  alone.  A  valid  life  of  the 
spirit  alone  will  maintain  courage  and  faith. 

Even  the  adjured  spirits  of  the  past  are  on 
trial.  No  American  thinker  to-day  would 
agree  with  the  mightiest  figure  in  the  states- 
manship of  seventy  years  ago,  holding,  as  he 
did,  that  property  is  the  basis  or  corner-stone 
of  government.  Humanity  is  more  than 
property.  Do  we  stand  by  this  faith  ?  We 
have  been  more  careful  in  the  Church  of  our 
divinity  than  we  have  of  our  humanity  ;  but 
now,  having  a  clearer  conception  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  there  has  sprung  out  of  it, 
armed  for  batde,  if  it  shall  not  be  permitted  to 
strew  the  earth  with  benedictions,  the  idea  of 
the  Brotherhood  of  Man.  There  is  no  pos- 
sibility of  resisting  the  advance  of  this  idea, 
with  its  inspiration  and  with  its  host.  It 
means  the  downfall  of  privilege  and  the 
extinction  of  those  views  of  political  economy 
which  have  been  too  long  regnant,  especially 
among  many  of  the  successful  adherents  of 
ecclesiastical  Christianity.     Let  not  the  con- 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         379 

quering  souls  of  other  bands  take  our  crown 
and  sing  of  any  one  of  Christ's  ministers  : 

"  We  shall  march  prospering, — not  through  his  pres- 
ence ; 
Songs  may  inspirit  us, — not  from  his  lyre ; 
Deeds  will  be  done, — while  he  boasts  his  quies- 
cence. 
Still  bidding  crouch  whom  the  rest  bid  aspire." 

Perhaps  there  is  nothing  in  which  a  minis- 
ter's work  among  men  indicates  the  highest 
values  contributed  by  his  own  profound  spir- 
ituality of  life,  more  than  the  quality  and 
form  of  the  consolatio7i  he  brings.  He  must 
be  a  man  of  prayer,  that  he  rnay  be  a  shep- 
herd, taking  the  case  of  his  brothers  up  to 
God.  He  is  the  man  of  consolation,  bring- 
ing the  comfort  of  God  from  the  heights, 
unto  his  brothers.  How  shallow  and  shad- 
owy is  much  that  we  offer  to  the  stricken 
and  broken  and  sorrowful  in  the  form  of 
consolation !  Is  there  any  vocabulary,  or 
any  phraseology,  which  is  more  vapid  or 
arid  than  these  of  the  peripatetic  purveyor 
of  what  he  calls  Comfort?  To  answer 
truly  these  questions  is  to  put  our  finger 
upon  the  reason  for  our  loquacious  incompe- 


38o  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

tence.  An  unspiritual  man  whose  life  has 
never  been  comforted  by  the  comfort  of  God, 
throughout  the  far  and  near  realms  of  his 
whole  nature,  will  always  appear  the  least 
helpful  of  human  beings  in  a  time  of  sorrow. 
If  such  an  one  shall  possess  the  intellect  of 
"the  greatest  of  the  Germans,"  save  Luther 
— I  choose,  for  example,  Goethe — and  be 
tangled  with  the  perplexities  of  a  brain  which 
lacked  only  the  pure  blood  coming  from  a 
pure  heart,  he  will  never  have  the  comfort  men 
need.  Richard  Holt  Hutton  says  of  Goethe 
that  he  was  the  "  man  half  worshipped  as 
a  demigod."  The  more  stupendous  the 
intellect  of  your  minister,  the  more  appall- 
ing is  his  discovery,  when  all  he  can 
ofTer  is  his  knowledge  of  "  all  symptoms  of 
disease,  a  few  alleviations,  no  remedies." 
Men  may  say  of  him,  as  Arnold  says  of 
Goethe : 

"  He  took  the  suffering  human  race; 

He  read  each  wound,  each  weakness  clear ; 
He  struck  his  finger  on  the  place. 

And  said  :   'Thou  ailest  here  and  here.'  " 

This  will  not  sufifice.     What  will  ? 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         381 

There   are   at  least  two  passages  in  our 
Scriptures  whose   truth  must  always  be  in 
our  mind,  and  its  implications  be  wrought 
over  and  over  again  into  our  very  character, 
if  we  shall  be  able  to  comfort  the  comfortless 
sons  of  men.     '' I  will  send  you  another  com- 
forter "— "  Even  the  Spirit  of  Truthr     This 
is  the  word  of  our  Master.     It  describes  the 
Almighty  Source  with  Whom   the  minister 
must  be  acquainted  and  familiar.     Remem- 
ber that  our  minister,  whose  problem  we  are 
studying,  is  the  very  man  who,  as  I  have  said, 
has,   by  the    heightening    influence    of   his 
preaching,  made  low  satisfactions  impossible 
for  his  people.     Remember  that  this  minister 
has  also  removed,  let  us  hope,  all  removable 
ignorance  as  to  Truth  from  the  souls  of  his 
people,  and  that  he  has  given  them  Truth  in- 
stead.    If  this  be  so,  the  only  kind  of  comfort 
which  now  may  fidy  pass  through  his  hands 
unto  them,  in  the  cleansing  acuteness  of  their 
woe,  is  that  which  comes  from  the  Spirit  of 
Truth.     Truth  is  the  light  which  must  break 
in  upon  the  dolor  of  their  grief.     Our  com- 
fort   for   them   must   come   from   this — that 


382  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Truth's  very  spirit  shall  never  leave  their 
painful  gloom,  until  it  shall  have  been  illu- 
minated, and  all  its  bewildering  hieroglyph- 
ics interpreted  to  them.  But  this  Truth  is 
something  more  than  light.  "The  Life  is 
the  light."  It  has  warmth,  and  is  tender 
and  saving.  Then  we  hear  Jesus  say:  "/ 
am  the  Truths  We  no  longer  try  to  get 
life  out  of  mere  light. 

Truth  and  comfort  are  never  two  differ- 
ing things  in  the  hands  of  a  man  full  of 
the  Spirit  of  Truth,  which  is  the  Comforter 
Whom  our  Lord  Jesus  promised.  The 
truths  of  many  a  minister  are  remote, 
cold,  and  unapproachable  by  the  emotions ; 
his  Comfort  also  is  shy  and  sentimental ;  and 
it  will  not  climb  the  heights  for  the  discovery 
of  Truth.  They  must  be  one,  in  the  gener- 
ous personal  Spiritual  Life  of  the  man  who 
would  make  men  truer  by  the  consolations 
which  he  brings  to  them.  We  all  feel  de- 
sirous to  make  for  the  comforting  of  our 
people,  by  the  truth  we  tell  them.  Here  the 
minister  must  have  help  from  above.  His 
Truth  is  the  verity  of  things,  discovered  in  his 


AND   THE   MINISTER'S   POWER         383 

own  Spiritual  Life.  It  must  suffice,  as  it  has, 
for  the  agony  of  death.  This  is  the  comfort 
he  brings,  that  life  ever  overcomes  death.  So, 
also,  of  any  other  sorrow,  or  loss,  or  pain,  or 
disappointment ;  and,  especially,  it  is  thus 
with  the  sorrow  of  the  soul  for  its  sin.  The 
personal  Christ,  the  life  of  the  minister's  life, 
must  be  man's  dearest  truth  and  his  surest 
comfort ;  and  so  we  have  the  meaning  of  the 
second  text :  "  Blessed  be  the  God  of  all  com- 
fort ;  who  comforteth  us  in  all  our  tribulation, 
that  we  may  be  able  to  comfort  them  which 
are  in  any  trouble  by  the  comfort  zvherewith 
we  ourselves  are  comforted  of  God T  Never 
undertake  to  comfort  any  one  except  with 
Truth  ;  and  never  try  to  comfort  any  other 
human  being  with  any  truth  which  has  not 
first  comforted  you. 

The  Christian  minister's  inspiration  and  in- 
struction, as  well  as  that  illumination  which 
is  the  first  characteristic  of  all  preaching, 
have  never  moved  more  mightily  towards  in- 
fluencing and  guiding  a  human  personality, 
than  when  Savonarola  ministered  to  Michel- 
angelo in  Florence.     The  most  convincing  of 


384  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

the  many  biographers  of  the  painter  of  the 
Sistine  Dome,  John  Addington  Symonds, 
tells  us  that,  at  a  certain  critical  period  of 
Angelo's  life,  when  this  monarch  of  art  had 
long  been  under  merely  literary  and  aesthetic 
influences,  directed  by  a  splendid  prince  and 
his  courtiers,  Michelangelo  fell  under  very 
"  different  influences  ;  and  these  left  a  far 
more  lasting  impression  on  his  character 
than  the  gay  festivals  and  witty  sword-com- 
bats of  the  lords  of  Florence."  '*  In  1491," 
Symonds  goes  on  to  say,  "  the  terrible 
prophet  of  coming  woes,  Savonarola,  the 
searcher  of  men's  hearts,  and  the  remorseless 
denouncer  of  pleasant  vices,  began  that 
Florentine  career  which  ended  with  his 
martyrdom  in  1498.  He  had  preached  in 
Florence  eight  years  earlier,  but  on  that  oc- 
casion he  passed  unnoticed  through  the 
crowd.  Now  he  took  the  whole  city  by 
storm.  Obeying  the  magic  of  his  eloquence 
and  the  magnetism  of  his  personality,  her 
citizens  accepted  this  Dominican  friar  as 
their  political  leader  and  moral  reformer, 
when  events  brought  about  the  expulsion  of 


AND   THE  MINISTER'S   POWER         385 

the  Medici  in  1494.  Michelangelo  was  one 
of  his  constant  listeners  at  S.  Marco  and  in 
Duomo.  He  witnessed  those  stormy  scenes 
of  religious  revival  and  passionate  fanaticism 
which  contemporaries  have  impressively  de- 
scribed. The  shorthand  writer  to  whom  we 
owe  the  text  of  Savonarola's  sermons  at  times 
breaks  off  with  words  like  these :  '  Here  I  was 
so  overcome  with  weeping  that  I  could  not  go 
on.'  Pico  della  Mirandola  tells  that  the  mere 
sound  of  the  monk's  voice,  startling  the  still- 
ness of  the  Duomo,  thronged  through  all  its 
space  with  people,  was  like  a  clap  of  doom  ; 
a  cold  shiver  ran  through  the  marrow  of  his 
bones,  the  hairs  of  his  head  stood  on  end 
while  he  listened.  Another  witness  reports : 
'  Those  sermons  caused  such  terror,  alarm, 
sobbing,  and  tears,  that  every  one  passed 
through  the  streets  without  speaking,  more 
dead  than  alive.' 

"One  of  the  earliest  extant  letters  of 
Michelangelo,  written  from  Rome  in  1497  to 
his  brother  Buonarotti,  reveals  a  vivid  inter- 
est in  Savonarola.  He  relates  the  evil 
rumours  spread  about  the  city  regarding  his 


386  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

heretical  opinions,  and  alludes  to  the  hostility 
of  Fra  Mariano  da  Genezzano  ;  adding  this 
ironical  sentence  :  '  Therefore  he  ought  by 
all  means  to  come  and  prophesy  a  little  in 
Rome,  when  afterwards  he  will  be  canonized  ; 
and  so  let  all  his  party  be  of  good  cheer.'  In 
later  years,  it  is  said  that  the  great  sculptor 
read  and  meditated  Savonarola's  writings 
together  with  the  Bible.  The  apocalyptic 
thunderings  and  voices  of  the  Sistine  Chapel 
owe  much  of  their  soul-thrilling  impressive- 
ness  to  those  studies.  Michelet  says,  not 
without  justice,  that  the  spirit  of  Savonarola 
lives  again  in  the  frescoes  of  that  vault." 

What  an  evidence  is  afforded  by  this 
episode,  in  the  biography  of  two  great  men, 
as  to  the  spirit  and  manner  of  the  true  minis- 
ter in  upbuilding  men  1  What  a  testimony 
as  to  our  possible  influence,  on  a  smaller 
scale,  which  it  is  ours  to  exercise  upon  human 
beings  1  God  grant  that  we  may  see  here 
something  of  the  consecrated  artistry  of  the 
minister's  calling  and  opportunities. 

Our  fathers  oft  have  told  us,  not  always  in 
the  interest  of  Puritanism,  that  we  must  not 


AND  THE  MINISTER'S  POWER         387 

seek  to  be  artistic,  and  that  a  sermon  con- 
ceived in  such  an  atmosphere  as  this  of 
Angeio  is  likely  to  be  overly  artistic.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  others  who  will  tell  us 
that  we  are  not  artistic  enough,  and  that  our 
sermon  is  ineffective  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
fluencing a  lover  of  beauty  as  well  as  truth, 
because  it  is  a  hopelessly  inartistic  thing. 
Standing  in  the  presence  of  Michelangelo 
and  his  art, — the  man  himself,  most  of  all, 
constituting  a  gloriously  artistic  result,  sur- 
passing even  the  artistry  of  his  work  on 
marble  or  in  frescoes, — we  cannot  fail  to  see 
that  Savonarola,  the  preacher,  was  largely 
the  father  of  Angelo's  art  both  in  life  and 
achievement.  More, — for  effects  must  have 
causes  for  themselves  adequate  not  only  in 
quantity,  but  also  in  quality — he  was  doubt- 
less as  great  an  artist  as  any  of  his  contem- 
poraries ;  as  great,  if  not  as  illustrious,  as 
Raphael  with  his  pencil,  Leonardo  with  his 
brush,  or  Angeio  with  his  chisel.  Each  of 
these  men  expressed  a  life  larger  than  his 
own, — a  life  all-compelling  and  irresistible. 
Its  expression  was  the  man's  career.     Savo- 


388  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

narola,  by  both  the  limitations  which  made 
the  walls,  and  the  affluence  of  the  stream  of 
power  rushing  between  these  enclosing  walls, 
expressed  himself  not  in  painting,  poetry,  or 
sculpture,  but  in  eloquence.  Let  us  not  fear 
fluency — a  word  which  allies  itself,  in  liquidity 
of  movement,  with  eloquence,  when  we  per- 
ceive that  any  and  all  of  these  arts  are  vital 
movements  of  human  self-expression  which,  in 
itself,  is  a  process  of  self-attainment.  When 
a  spiritual  life,  in  its  majesty  of  content  and 
urgency  of  expression,  is  behind  and  within  it 
all,  running  onward  in  order  that  it  may  be 
true  to  itself,  we  need  not  set  ourselves  for- 
biddingly against  fluency.  But  there  is  some- 
thing more  important  involved  just  here. 

We  still  have  in  mind  those  persons  who 
fear  what  they  call  the  artistic,  on  the  one  side  ; 
and  the  others  who  fear  the  inartistic,  on  the 
other  side.  The  minister,  who  stands  between 
them,  must  come  from  such  a  study  as  that  of 
Savonarola  in  his  relations  to  Michelangelo, 
made  sure  of  one  thing :  It  is  this — that 
which  alone  will  deliver  us  from  being  open 
either  to  the  charge  that  we  are  too  artistic,  or 


AND   THE  MINISTER'S   POWER         389 

to  the  charge  that  we  are  inartistic,  is  such  a 
manhood  through  the  Spiritual  Life  as  com- 
pelled Savonarola's  life-expression,  all  uncon- 
sciously, to  be  a  thing  of  highest  art.  Never, 
in  such  an  instance,  was  there  a  deliberate 
endeavour  to  produce  art,  as  an  end.  It  is 
not  yours  to  speak  here  of  the  "  art  which  con- 
ceals art."  There  was  nothing  of  reasoned- 
out  planfulness,  when  this  painter's  instinct 
chose  words,  rather  than  colour,  for  his  life- 
expression.  The  achievement  rooted  itself  in 
the  blissful  unconsciousness  of  his  absorbing 
piety  and  outstanding  genius. 

We  must  never  fear  that  the  pulpit  will 
have  too  much  of  this  personal  holiness  and 
consecrated  faculty  which  make  its  sermons 
things  of  beauty  and  even  of  sublimity.  This 
means  art-products, — and  there  are  none 
nobler,  save  and  except  the  characters  of  the 
men  which  they  are  created  to  inspire  and 
enrich.  Obedient  to  that  Truth  whom  we 
shall  see  in  His  beauty,  then,  in  reason  and 
aim,  our  true  minister  must  be.  He  must  be, 
therefore,  a  loftily-motived  man ;  and  his 
power  with  men  will  be  first  of  all  his  power 


390  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

with  God.  I  do  not  mean  solely,  or  even 
firstly,  his  power,  for  example,  in  prevailing 
efficacy  of  prayer  as  the  priest  of  his  fellows ; 
but  I  mean  his  power  with  God — "-along 
with  God^^  in  and  through  Christ,  in  the  re- 
demption of  the  world.  This  power,  which 
must  be  yours  and  mine,  is  implied  in  the 
words :  "  We  are  workers  together  with 
God."  "  God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the 
world  unto  Himself."  "We  are  ambassadors 
of  God,"  and  in  that  striking  phrase  of  the 
Old  Testament:  "The  sword  of  the  Lord 
God  and  of  Gideon."  It  is  the  power  of  a 
fellowship  and  partnership,  which  the  weaker 
has  and  the  stronger  gives  him  for  a  purpose 
and  use  which  they  are  agreed  upon.  With 
such  associative  power,  added  to  the  empow- 
ering which  God,  through  Christ,  so  often 
promises  in  the  multitude  of  crises,  where  He 
says :  "  I  will  give  you  power,"  or,  "  Ye  shall 
receive  power  from  on  high,"  our  ministry 
cannot  be  far  from  the  upper  room  and  its 
Pentecost.  Indeed,  Pentecost  should  be  a 
perpetual  experience.  We  find  it  so,  even 
now,  in  the  lives  of  men  who  do  take  up 


AND   THE  MINISTER'S   POWER         39 1 

serpents  in  their  efforts  to  reform  men,  and 
yet  these  ministers  are  not  harmed  ;  and  we 
ought  not  to  be  amazed  that  they  first  speak 
with  "  other  tongues,  as  the  Spirit  gives  them 
utterance."  Now,  this  is  the  explanation,  if 
one  is  needed,  of  the  eminent  influence  of 
many  a  man  in  our  ministry,  who  is  not  great 
as  this  world  accounts  greatness,  in  manifest 
faculty  or  in  the  culture  of  the  schools.  But 
we  hear  of  things  celestial,  as  he  preaches  to 
men  and  lives  among  them. 

Andrea  Del  Sarto,  the  faultless  painter  of 
Angelo's  day,  has  had  his  Browning ;  and  it 
would  be  well  if  the  Andrea  Del  Sarto  of 
many  a  laborious  and  painstaking  pulpit 
might  tell  us  of  his  failure,  as  well,  in  the 
presence  of  the  successes  of  less  refined  breth- 
ren. They  nevertheless  so  achieve,  that  even 
this  Andrea  may  be  led  to  say  : 

"  There  burns  a  truer  light  of  God  in  them, 
In  their  vexed  beating  stuffed  and  stopped-up  brain, 
Heart,  or  whate'er  else,  than  goes  to  prompt 
This    low-pulsed    forthright   craftsman's   hand   of 
mine." 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  whole  matter  is, 
that  the  result  of  their  effort,  measured  by 


392  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

the  power  manifested  and  the  power  which 
for  uncounted  years  goes  forth  from  such  Hfe 
and  preaching,  is  like  the  work  of  an  un- 
known painter,  as  compared  with  Andrea's — 
it  is  really  the  more  artistic.  Oh,  you  say 
again  that  you  do  not  care  for  art  ? — it  is  of 
this  perishing  world  and  the  carnal  mind  ? 
How  little  will  you  care  for  heaven  !  My 
brother,  the  good  and  the  true  and  the 
beautiful  are  one  ;  and  only  in  Christ  are 
they  indivisible,  because  they  are  alive  in 
Him.  "Strength  and  beauty  are  in  his  sanc- 
tuary." The  minister,  in  life  and  speech, 
"shall  have  two  staves,  and  one  shall  be 
beauty,  and  the  other  bands."  "  He  shall 
see  the  King  in  His  beauty," — that  is,  if  he 
has  been  true  and  good,  and  especially  suffi- 
ciently beautiful  in  life  and  work  to  have  an 
eye  for  beauty  when  he  awakes  at  morning. 

I  have  paid  scant  respect  to  prettiness, 
because  I  have  insisted  upon  the  supremacy 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  over  all,  beneath  all,  in 
all,  and  that  is  always  either  beautiful  or 
sublime. 

We  must  welcome  the  criteria  of  beauty 


AND  THE  MINISTER'S  POWER         393 

and  sublimity,  with  the  criteria  of  truth  and 
righteousness.  We  may  see  that  beauty  is 
sublimity  on  a  small  scale,  in  the  Welsh  hills, 
and  sublimity  is  beauty  on  a  large  scale,  in 
the  Canadian  Rockies.  It  is  not  something 
to  be  said  against  the  life  or  sermon,  but 
rather  in  its  favour,  that  it  accords,  in  beauty 
or  sublimity,  with  Rossetti's  "Annunciation," 
or  George  Watts'  "Isaiah  of  Jerusalem." 
These  men  were  very  different  at  points,  but 
Rossetti  nursed  his  youth  with  Christina  on 
the  Gospels,  and  George  Watts,  a  grandson  of 
Adam  Clarke,  the  Bible  commentator,  could 
not  escape  a  Biblical  grandeur  and  loveliness 
when  he  painted.  It  appears  odd  enough 
that  we  praise  our  religion  because  it  has 
built  Cologne  Cathedral,  chiselled  the  Apos- 
des,  painted  the  "  Transfiguration  of  Christ " 
and  "The  Last  Supper,"  written  "Paradise 
Lost"  and  "A  Death  in  the  Desert,"  and 
sung  "The  Messiah"  and  "Parsifal":  and 
yet  we  are  fearful  of  it  when  it  redeems  and 
sancdfies  the  art  of  the  orator,  in  our  neigh- 
bourhood, as  throughout  all  the  world  it  has 
rejuvenated  all  other  arts.     Be  still  and  fear 


394  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

not — be  siill,  especially,  if  you  do  fear.  The 
day  of  Christian  eloquence  is  coming  soon, 
and  when  it  comes,  Angelo,  the  orator,  will 
preach  as  he  once  wrought  Moses  or  David 
in  marble ;  and,  more  beautiful  if  less  sublime, 
the  angel  faces  of  Fra  Angelico  will  look 
out  from  some  Savonarola's  sermon  now 
preached,  as  was  his,  within  the  very  walls 
upon  which  they  remain.  They  shall  also 
speak  of  their  Lord  Jesus,  as  they  have, 
since  that  morning  when  the  angelical  monk 
touched  lineament  after  lineament  for  the 
last  time,  his  tears  mingling  with  his  colours 
while  he  prayed  and  painted. 

I  know  what  each  of  you  is  saying  to  his 
own  soul  while  these  kingly  names  and  their 
royal  personages  come  and  go,  with  my 
concluding  utterance.  You  are  saying : 
"  There  is  nothing  of  this  sort  of  triumph  for 
me.  I  shall  never  come  into  the  lofty  region 
of  these  men's  lives  or  influence."  I  straight- 
way, and  here,  summon  you  to  a  battle  which 
is  yours  and  mine, — a  battle  for  the  faith  in 
which  alone  we  may,  or  ought  to  continue  in 
the  Christian  ministry — a  battle  for  that  faith 


AND  THE  MINISTER'S  POWER         395 

in  God,  the  Holy  Spirit,  Who  alone  hath 
power  for  motive  adequate  for  us — the  only 
faith  which  will  give  thee  and  me  self-respect, 
my  brother  I  Contest,  here  and  now,  O  my 
soul,  before  thou  shaft  leave  this  place  of  prayer 
and  vision,  for  every  inch  of  the  ground  which 
is  thine  by  right.  Settle  it,  once  for  all,  as 
thou  shalt  settie  all  things  in  and  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  if  thou  art  to  be  weak  in  thyself  or 
strong  in  the  Lord  and  the  power  of  His 
might.  "  Come,  let  us  reason  together," 
saith  our  God.  Let  us  reason,  then,  in  the 
words  of  the  humanity  to  whom  we  are  sent. 
What,  other  than  this,  can  be  our  reasoning  ? 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  certain  obscure  Augustin 
friar,  in  the  town  of  Faenza,  said  the  word 
which  illuminated  the  soul  of  Savonarola,  at  its 
crisis,  and  gave  him  to  the  Christian  pulpit : 
"  Things  and  men  are  the  results  of  causes, 
and  the  causes  of  results."  It  cannot  be  that 
the  result  upon  Savonarola  which  caused  the 
result  upon  Michelangelo,  which,  in  turn, 
caused  the  limitless  result  of  his  art  and  life 
upon  the  world,  was  wholly  dependent  upon 
the  material   which  this  mountain-preacher 


396  THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE 

found  in  that  youth  from  Farara,  Savonarola. 
You  can  never  estimate  the  energy  which 
makes  for  such  art  of  character-finding  and 
molding,  by  the  material  furnished  to  the 
artist,  any  more  than  you  can  estimate  the 
value  of  his  friend  Angelo's  "Last  Judgment" 
by  the  cost  of  the  pigments.  What  then  was 
the  sovereign  force?  A  majestic  motive, 
working  in  and  through  the  hands  of  a  man, 
totally  dedicated  to  it  and  meantime  educated 
by  it, — this  alone  contributed  the  main 
value. 

Go  back  then,  my  soul,  but  not  until  thou 
hast  put  aside  thine  own  weakness  which 
minifies,  and  taken  hold  of  God's  power  in 
Christ  by  the  Holy  Spirit  which  magnifies 
human  opportunity — back  to  Angelo's  fres- 
coes which  are  the  breath  of  Savonarola's 
utterance  caught  and  held  upon  the  ceiling  of 
the  Sistine  Chapel ;  back  further,  to  Savona- 
rola's power  which  is  supreme 

"As  when  some  great  painter  dips 
His  pencil  in  the  hues  of  earthquake  and  eclipse," 

leaving  Florence  and  all  succeeding  time 
with  his  unfading  picture  of  the  all-conquering 


AND   THE   minister's   POWER         397 

Christ ; — go  back,  still  further,  back  to  the 
unheralded  monk,  who  touched  the  young 
man,  Savonarola,  and  released  within  his 
secret  soul  the  only  Power  in  this  universe 
which  will  decide  for  us  and  redeem  our 
human  nature  from  ugliness  into  beauty,  and 
give  it  a  message  which  will  create  herald- 
lips  aglow  with  divine  flame, — go  back,  far- 
thest back,  to  the  Omnipotent  Grace  and 
Crucified  Love  !  My  soul  must  go  with  thine, 
my  brother,  even  to  this  Reality  of  Realities, 
lest  we  cheat  ourselves  by  an  underestimate 
of  God  in  the  Spiritual  Life,  for  which  I  have 
been  pleading  here.  Having  come  to  this, 
here  at  the  Cross  of  God's  power,  which  itself 
became  a  ministry  only  by  such  an  humiliation, 
we  faint  not,  but  must  know  that,  here  or 
yonder,  in  the  squalor  and  solitude  of  our 
least  attractive  parish,  you  and  I,  by  the 
preaching  of  that  Cross,  shall  discover,  for 
time  and  eternity,  the  greatness  and  glory  of 
the  Christian  Ministry. 


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THISELTON  MARK,  D.Lit. 

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Date  Due 


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